To The Editor:

In your article Hillary copies D’Amato [Briefs, September 25, 2002], you state that Hillary borrowed an idea from former foe ex-Senator Alphonse D’Amato, whose seat she took in the Senate. Hillary replaced Senator [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan not, D’Amato. Thank you.

Barbara Frei

Bayside

Note: While Clinton may have superseded Moynihan, D’Amato instituted the annual salute to farmers.

CBS Skips Visit

To The Editor:

It was gratifying to know that Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg and his emisaries, Peter Vallone Jr. and Michael Gianaris made not only 200,000 Greeks of Astoria proud, but all 500,000 Astoria residents.

I as a Greek Orthodox Christian, whose religion is the fourth major faith in America, and the Christian faith of Jerusalem since 59 A.D., felt like a second class citizen in America because CBS television excluded mentioning Mayor Bloomberg’s visit with Patriarch Bartholemew. Let’s not forget that there are 920,000 Greeks, in the five boroughs, plus 250,000 Armenian Orthodox and with the Russians, Rumanians, Syrians, Ukranians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Serbians, Ethiopians and Indians, there are more than 1.5 million Eastern Orthodox Christians in New York City out of 8,000,000 New Yorkers, two million out of 17,000,000 residents of the state with the Greeks the largest block of Eastern Orthodox in the state [numbers] 1,305,000 and the Greeks comprise six out of the 10 million [Eastern Orthodox] in America.

Sincerely,

Athan John Christodoulou

Chairman: U.S. 2000 Census Hellenic Steering Committee of N.Y. State

P.S. John Toscano’s front-page story on the visit in the September 25 edition referred to 220 million Orthodox Chrsitians in the world. There are 350 million.

Shocked By Gore

To The Editor:

I was shocked and outraged at former Vice President Al Gore’s performance at the Commonwealth Club of California. It was not just that it smacked of sour grapes. It was exceedingly bad judgement. This is not the time for rank partisanship.

It was especially ironic that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was giving a speech echoing Churchill style wisdom steeped in realism and responsibility and maturity while Mr. Gore was engaging in slapstick and counseling Chamberlain–style appeasement of Iraq

Mr. Gore places himself in the company of France and Russia and China in thinking those nations should define the United State’s security priorities and actions (as members of the UN Security Council). Need it be said that France knows something about appeasement?

[President] George W. Bush clearly appreciates that his responsibilities and authority draw from the United States Constitution and not the United Nations Charter or the UN Security Council. That is why President Bush is seeking congressional authorization and would appreciate but does not require international support.

Interesting that the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy and Spain all seem ready to support President Bush and the United States even should the United Nations fail to act, yet Mr. Gore speaks of unilateralism. Perhaps Mr. Gore thinks that Beijing, Moscow and Paris should be the sole arbiters of America’s fate?

Thank you President George W. Bush for your continued leadership and the courage of your convictions. Apparently character does matter a great deal and appeasing evil can be quite habit forming.

Sincerely

Vince Tabone

Astoria

Should We Go To War?

To The Editor:

In regard to the ongoing congressional discussion on whether we should go to war with Iraq, I was watching "Meet the Nation" with guest speaker Senator Trent Lott, who brought out some good reasons we should do so. He brought out an interesting point, and that was even though Iraq is attempting to develop nuclear weapons their chemical and biological weapons program could be delivered in a aerosol can or in a envelope, and that could happen sooner not later and thousands could die.

We must also consider Saddam Hussein’s possible connection to the Al Qaeda and if that is so it would not be hard to imagine a terrorist cell could sneak a canister full of smallpox into the air vents of a train station which I find quite scary.

We are dealing with an unstable government in Iraq that is not afraid to use weapons of destruction. The question is, do we commit our young men and women to such a war where the outcome is unclear. Let’s look at Article 51 of the United Nations charter which allows pre-emptive action if there is a clear and imminent danger to a country’s security. Our President George W. Bush’s rationale is that pre-emptive military action has some validity, and he might very well be right considering this age of terrorism we live in, for we do not what to go through another 9/11.

On the other hand we need, I feel, further discussion on the why and wherefore and what a war would cost in terms of lives and the effect on our country and the global economy, and if we would be eradicating the roots of further terrorism.

I can’t help but be troubled with all this talk of war which brings to mind something Albert Einstein said, "Let man put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."

Sincerely Yours,

Frederick R. Bedell Jr.

Little Neck