Regarding your Friday front page story, ''Govt war on drugs hailed a success'', the gloating over the "success" of the government's anti-drug efforts would be much more impressive if it also included some of the true drug kingpins and associated influential people who really make it happen here in Thailand as part of that arrest list.
Chase
INCREDIBLE DRUG STATISTICS
I read with mounting incredulity the piece printed in the Friday Bangkok Post entitled ''Govt war on drugs hailed a success'' as it slavishly presented the government's line asserting that ''more than 330,000 suspects had been arrested''. It is only when one coldly thinks about that statement does its ridiculousness truly reveal itself. This means that 27,500 suspects were being arrested a month and 6,346 were being arrested a week. That's more than 900 a day and 35 an hour, around the clock, which really strains believability.
John de Laurent
Bangkok
LETHAL WEAPON FOLLY
As I read in the Bangkok Post about the latest scandal in which it was reported that Mae Hong Son Senator Boonsong Kowawisarat accidentally killed his secretary in a restaurant, I had to shake my head in despair. If Senator Boonsong had any common sense he would never have brought a loaded assault weapon into a public restaurant. And shouldn't the restaurant take some responsibility for allowing him to openly carry the weapon?
But no matter, the case involving the very high-status senator will be handled with the usual face-saving procedures in place to allow him not to look bad for carrying a gun he didn't know how to handle into a public place.
He is now protected by parliamentary immunity.
I can think of events in the past where people of high status have practically or literally gotten away with murder. The case where three policemen were released on bail after being found guilty of murdering a 17-year-old boy comes to mind.
In my opinion, however, the protection of people of high status in Thailand may be coming to an end with the arrival of smartphones and other technology that allows the easy recording of all such incidents.
Francis Liem
TIME TO STOP JAPAN-BASHING
In his letter to ''PostBag'' on Friday, Andy Leitner expressed anger at the cover-up in Japanese textbooks of crimes committed by Japan during World War Two. Well, when I went to high school and college in America I did not read one word in the textbooks about American atrocities committed against the native Americans.
In fact, Americans celebrate Columbus Day, despite the horrible things Christopher Columbus's men did to the native Americans.
With all the atrocities going on in the world today, can't we find more important things to do than to bash Japan, which is now a peace-loving democracy?
Eric Bahrt
ASSANGE'S 15 MINUTES ARE UP
It's hard to read the international section of any newspaper these days without being treated to further installments in the Julian Assange saga. I wonder if I'm alone in being sick and tired of Assange and those who, in spite of all the evidence concerning his character, continue to follow him.
We may all acknowledge that WikiLeaks provided, for a time, a valuable service. But I think it must be now be clear to all that Assange's motives were not entirely pure.
Here is a man charged with sexual assault in one of the most liberal of democracies, Sweden.
Yet, rather than face these accusations, he has instead invented the kind of convoluted conspiracy theory so beloved by his followers to justify his flight into the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Ecuador, in stark contrast to Sweden, is a country run by the kind of authoritarian figure who believes in freedom of speech so long as no one actually criticises him, and prosecutes any journalists who actually do.
Surely Assange's 15 minutes of fame are now up.
It's unfortunate that the Ecuadorian government has allowed itself to be sucked into his vortex of fantasy and in doing so prolonged the agony for all of us.
It's high time the motley crowd of Assange supporters wake up and acknowledge that he is not some kind of 21st century Robin Hood. As for Assange, he should answer for his crimes in Sweden, where I have no doubt he will be given a fair trial.
Nigel Woodward
Bangkok
BRITISH STANCE OUTRAGEOUS
The British government's announcement that it may forcibly enter the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Julian Assange is outrageous.
We are asked to believe that Assange, who faces trial in Sweden, is such a threat to society that the forced entry into the Ecuadorian embassy is justified.
Assange is a journalist who exposed the misdeeds of several governments, notably that of the US, and the ridiculous lengths the British government has gone to silence him are worthy of every decent person's contempt.
John A Donnelly
Pathum Thani
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