Mandela, CBS owe an apology to all Americans

To the editor:

I am outraged at the recent speech made by South Africa's former president, Nelson Mandela, in which he voiced his personal opinion about the way President Bush was handling the situation with Iraq. Mandela made it clear he thinks Bush stops short of being incompetent, which was a personal attack and definitely out of line.

But when Mandela said the United States was "the greatest perpetrator of atrocities that the world has ever known," I was outraged. He was referring to the bombs dropped on Japan that ended World War II. It is a clear fact of history that if it had not been for the bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war would have gone on for months, and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives would have been lost.

I am also outraged at CBS News for the way it inserted footage of an old nuclear explosion during that part of the speech.

I demand an apology from Mandela, and I demand an apology from CBS News. How can we stay silent? We must not stay silent about the comments of this media attack against this great country.

TOM McCANLESS

Pastor

Kewanee Missionary Baptist Church

Kewanee, Mo.