To the Editor:

My eyes almost popped out when I read the headline of your editorial “Bullying Iran.”

Here is a state that is responsible for unbelievable violations of diplomatic immunity, numerous acts of terrorism, probable violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; that calls for wiping a neighboring country off the map; that interferes in the internal politics of its neighbors; that ends official assemblies, political and religious, with chants of “Death to America!” and that, you have reported, may be facilitating the killing of American soldiers.

When President Bush declares that the agents of such a state who strike us should expect to be struck back at, you call this “bullying,” as if Iran were an innocent youngster in the schoolyard. Yours is a policy of appeasement.

Kevin S. Fogarty
Cincinnati, Feb. 1, 2007

Note from KBJ: This is not a joke. This letter appeared in The New York Times.