Look at what they did.

Editor,

None of these excuses count. "The devil made me do it" is an empty, stupid defense. These people broke a long list of serious and vital laws.

Note also that these ideologues, who by definition operate on the basis of beliefs not evidence, claimed despite mountains of evidence to the contrary that their tax policy, their deregulation of the financial sector, their stem cell policy, their energy policy, their environmental policy, and a host of others were infallible and correct.

Why is the NYT making excuses for these people? They shut responsible research, scientific evidence, and all manner of informed people who disagreed with them out of their decision making process because, according to themselves, they were divinely inspired with the truth.

They broke the law. They are criminals. They destroyed Iraq. They are responsible for the needless, senseless deaths of a million Iraqis. They shut out all dissent in our supposed democracy, and they wreaked havoc.

Now it is time for them to pay as all despots do in the end, and it will be a cold sense of satisfaction that I for one will feel. Look at what these people did. Look at the destruction they have wrought. Look at the death and misery they have caused.

re: "In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Inquiry Into Their Past Use" (4/22/2009)