Dump Cohen, ham-handed history lessons

Here's what shouldn't be news: Richard Cohen is a hack who should have stopped writing a long time ago. Here's what should be news for you: stop reprinting his articles.

In your "Our View" section you had wonderful words about how communities work together to celebrate diversity while showing we are all neighbors. A great message!

Then, just one column down, you have Richard Cohen making some of the most ignorant opinions this side of a Stormfront message board about the ending of World War II. He actually makes the assertion that Japanese citizens deserved the atomic bomb because the horrible nature of prison camps proved American anti-Japanese propaganda and the Japanese soldiers were " ... doing their level best to prove that the bigots right." I'll repeat that: prove bigots right.

Was what happened to American soldiers in Japanese camps horrible? Yes. Does that somehow justify racism? Nope. Nor does it justify the rest of his ham-handed history lesson which not only shows Cohen's love of unanswerable hypotheticals but also his style of never actually saying anything of substance whatsoever.

Do yourself a favor, editing team: there are hundreds of other columns to choose to run. Dump Richard Cohen.

Matt Binder

Wheaton