I saw you at 2:45 p.m., Friday Aug. 3, on Witham Hill Drive between Elmwood and Walnut Boulevard. You: male in a colorful sport shirt, accompanied by a female in shorts. She: walking a medium-sized brown dog with erect ears. You: walking a pretty golden retriever. Me: driving by just as you kicked your pretty golden retriever in the mouth. Deliberately.

Ange Crawford

Corvallis

Our medical system turned upside down

I deplore the thought that a doctor or clinic, in order to stay in business, must deny care to patients because of the insurance (Medicare or other) that the patients happen to have. People who are denied primary care appear in our emergency rooms with neglected illnesses that are difficult and expensive to treat. We all absorb the associated costs.

Primary care is a rapidly diminishing specialty in the United States. Only 25 percent of medical school graduates intend to specialize in primary care. Only 20 percent of doctors completing an internal medicine residency will deliver primary care; the remaining 80 percent will become hospitalists and other specialists.

The philosophy of health care in our country is upside down. Our society values the expensive rescue care of specialists far more than it does the primary and preventative care that could reduce the need for a specialist.

One problem for primary care doctors and Medicare patients is reimbursement rates that are too low to attract and retain physicians for this demanding job and to pay office personnel who deal with mountains of insurance-related paperwork.

But the health of a society is closely related to the strength of its primary care physician force. In the United States, the ratio of primary care doctors to specialists is 1 to 3. The ratio should be 3 to 1, as in the other industrialized nations, all of which have a healthier citizenry than we do.

What can we do about these inequities?

See www.wecandobetter.

Mike Huntington, M.D.

Corvallis

Refusal to accept Medicare common

Thanks to Bud Fredericks for bringing to the attention of younger Gazette-Times readers what the older readers have known for sometime: doctors and clinics often refuse to accept Medicare patients (Letters, Aug. 2, "Avoid doctors who refuse to treat some").

I was shocked when I contacted the Corvallis Clinic to inquire about doctors accepting new patients. Since I had private health insurance, I would be welcomed as a new patient; however, my partner, who had Medicare, would not be. It was the policy of the Corvallis Clinic, I was informed, not to accept new patients with Medicare.

Samuel Bennett

Corvallis

GOP, Dems both have bloody hands

In his July 30 letter, John D. Jones raises some excellent questions about Iraq and prior administrations. ("More to consider about road to Iraq"

In a recent letter to the editor, I stated that the invasion of Iraq was planned before 9-11. I did not, however, clarify when or who may have been involved in the planning. Recent manipulated intelligence is but a small part of a bigger 15-year assault on Iraq's people.

To get a look into this, one needs to go back further than the current administration. Then-President Bill Clinton did indeed sign the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 and essentially laid the groundwork for George Bush. As bloody and deadly as the occupation has been, Clinton refined the art of killing innocent Iraqis following the Gulf War. One of his first acts was to bomb Iraq. The Clinton administration was by no means any less aggressive and oppressive than the current administration.

The bloody occupation of Iraq has opened a rare and clear window into the truth about this country: there is one party represented in Washington - one that supports preemptive war and regime change. The reality is that the Democrats could end this war if the will was there, but they won't.

And as for the liberal talk and its clear implication that all liberals are Democrats: I am a registered independent and a seeker of truth and justice. That may all be a fantasy, but the fact is, our nonpartisan Constitution is in peril and we, the people, need to act.

Doug Huntley

Corvallis

Let's retrace that long road to Iraq

John D. Jones' July 30 letter, "More to consider about road to Iraq," critical of my position, deserves a factual response:

A 2005 CIA finding states, "Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support." The Iraqi regime repeatedly rejected al-Qaeda requests for meetings. This refutes President Bush's multiple lies to link Musab al-Zarqawi with Iraq.

Lay blame on President Jimmy Carter for Iraq? If we followed Carter's July 25, 1979, address on energy: 20 percent of our energy by 2000 would have been solar and foreign oil use cut by 50 percent!

How about Ronald Reagan or George Herbert Walker Bush? Reagan knew Iraq used chemical weapons in 1983, yet he allowed 60 Hughes helicopters to be sold to Saddam Hussein! From 1985 to1990, the U.S. government approved 771 licenses for the export to Iraq of $1.5 billion worth of biological agents: Reagan's complicit legacy includes Saddam's WMD program!

The first President Bush fought U.N. sanctions against Iraq even after the 1988 Halabja gassing of civilians. He (Carlyle Group) met with Osama bin Laden's family members on

9-11. They flew home safely without questions about 9-11.

When Clinton ordered bin Laden camps in Afghanistan and Sudan bombed, many scoffed, "Wag the Dog."

Ironically, Clinton was more like a Republican than Democrat, yet Republicans and Democrats both share the blame over Iraq. To edify our current president is impertinent. Impeach President Bush for abusing our Constitution and for his lies about Iraq.

John F. Borowski

Philomath