WASHINGTON -- U.S. vice presidents are hardly remembered, and the view here generally is that the nominees contribute little to the electability of a would-be president unless they come from a major state. More importantly, their role in the day-to-day conduct of U.S. administrations, in the domestic or foreign spheres, is usually limited, if not marginal.

How important is the vice president to a serving U.S. president? Is there more to the job than helping the presidential candidate secure the job by attracting voters from his constituency?

It is under a cloud of heavy pessimism that U.S. President George W. Bush leaves for the Middle East, a region that one former administration official described as today being more dangerous, unstable and problematical for the United States than since before the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Is the Iraqi debacle another Vietnam War? Certainly there are parallels, particularly with the lack of candor and ineptness by the US administrations of both Lyndon B.

Transparency in government is one of the 'values' nobody talked about in the recent elections. Yet it is among America's more important attributes; it distinguishes the United States from most other governments.

I wholeheartedly disagree with parallels drawn between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam conflict (“Iraq vs. Vietnam,” MET 18). Anyone who actually served in Vietnam, like I did, would tell you that Iraq is not another Vietnam.