IN LIGHT OF THE SACRIfice of Bangladeshi troops in Somalia and currently at Bihac, Bosnia, under United Nations auspices, the use of the phrase “Bangladesh on the Potomac” (“Loose Lips,” 12/2) is both gratuitous and derogatory. It denigrates a nation that is ostensibly dedicated to implementing peacemaking. The metaphor is, indeed, unnecessarily disparaging.

Joel Hettger, Arlington, Va.