Stop Smoking

* Re “Why Republicans Are Such Ripe Targets,” Commentary, July 14: As one of the Republicans whom Elizabeth Whelan fairly described as having legitimate reasons for being against government actions against tobacco companies, I have to be consistent in my ideology. She says that I should be criticized for not having a program of my own to deal with the health devastation of tobacco use in the United States.

I do have a program. I quit smoking 27 years ago. That’s my program. It’s free. It doesn’t require a government committee. It needs no office building in Washington with thousands of government employees. It doesn’t need annual budgeting by Congress, and it has a very high success rate. A basic Republican tenet is “personal freedom and responsibility.”

WARREN H. RAABE

South Gate