The War in Iraq: One Year Later

On this first anniversary of the war in Iraq I have read and heard countless editorial comments on the terrible price paid for a war based on lies of the president. We hear that there are no weapons of mass destruction. We hear there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was linked to Al Qaeda. We hear that Hussein was not an imminent threat to the U.S. We hear there was no reason to go to war. And the press, a willing participant in the leftist ideology spewed in these diatribes, rants on and on about the needless tragedy of the war in Iraq. Perhaps the ranters would have preferred more evidence of the imminent threat posed by Iraq before entering into a conflict -- like a mushroom cloud over New York or Washington.

To blindly ignore the threat that the Middle East poses to civilization on planet Earth is to invite destruction. You cannot appease, you cannot bargain, you cannot negotiate. Fanaticism is not logical, just blindly zealous. All I need to know about Hussein and Osama bin Laden and the rest of militant Islam is that they want me and those I love dead. If you know that some people are going to kill you, and the only way to prevent it is to kill them, you kill them, period. You don’t give them a second chance, you don’t plead on your knees, “Don’t kill me.” You don’t say, “We’ll give you anything you ask.”

We can’t “just get along.” And for those of you who want to go on believing there is no evidence that Hussein was a threat to America, be thankful that George W. Bush stole the election, or you would be on your knees this very moment.

David Charles Chrisman

Westlake Village

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Arguably, the Shiites and Kurds in Iraq are safer now that the regime of Hussein is out of power. The rest of the world is not. This war will not eradicate terrorism; it will only bring on more and more.

Terrorism, like religion, thrives on persecution. Killing or imprisoning terrorists will only inflame those still at large to recruit more terrorists. When the highly revered Bin Laden is captured, he will be martyred and adored even more. To quote an old song, “When will they ever learn?”

Cassandra Rhys

Laguna Woods

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The blood of every American killed in the Halliburton war is on Bush’s hands. If I thought he had a conscience, I could rest easier.

Kevin Poore

Long Beach