In the editorial (“What sacrifice?” The Daily Astorian, July 26), you criticize President Bush for failing to involve the American public in the Iraqi War by (1) not asking the public to conserve gasoline, and (2) for not asking for a tax increase to pay the cost of the war.

You mention that Congressman Charles Rangell, D-N.Y., seeks to implement a military draft. Rep. Rangell’s hypocrisy is enough to nauseate any honest person inasmuch as he would simply become ecstatic if President Bush sought to push for a draft. Rep. Rangell, whose bitter hatred of the president is well known, would announce triumphantly that President Bush broke a campaign promise that he would not call for a draft.

Regarding gasoline conservation, don’t you believe that the American public is intelligent enough to do so without being told? It is in keeping with liberals’ belief that the average citizen is too stupid to make any decisions and must be instructed by “Big Brother” in Washington.

And, regarding taxes, a report by the Labor Department in July showed that tax receipts continue to rebound since the president’s tax cut of 2003 and rose at a nearly 15 percent rate thus far this year.

You state that the troops are frustrated by the public’s lack of sacrifice. From what I’ve read in newspapers other than The Daily Astorian and The Oregonian, the troops feel that their efforts are being undermined by the increasing and constant haranguing and criticism by a dismal cast of mostly Democrat politicians, most notably Senators Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Pat Leahy, Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin and their ilk, as well as party chairman Howard Dean and, once again, the infamous “Hanoi Jane” Fonda, who is planning another traitorous performance as she did during the Vietnam War. It has been reported that she’s arranging a national bus tour on her own “Treason Trail,” apparently intent on duplicating her reprehensible Vietnam performance of 30 years ago.

Of course, she’ll be aided and abetted by the ever-willing left-wing media, which can’t wait to do its part in spewing Fonda’s treasonous bile.

All those frustrated and greedy politicians are doing their best to undermine our Iraqi venture, hoping we fail because they feel that that’s the only way they can slither back into political power, something they lost over a dozen years ago.

E. ROBERT NASSIKAS

Astoria