While appreciative of the health aspects of breathing, I think the case is overstated for avoiding wood smoke (“Wood smoke, other pollutants inflame delicate lungs,” Feb. 2).

It has taken nine bloody and difficult months, but the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops appears at last to have brought not just a lull in the sectarian fighting in Iraq, but the first tangible steps toward genuine political reconciliation.

Dear editor,

Dear editor,

Dear editor,