Arab Viewpoint of Gulf War

The article by Rami G. Khouri (“America Will Reap a Festering Bitterness,” Commentary, Jan. 28) was a well-reasoned piece from the Arab point of view and should be read by us here in the United States to help us gain perspective on why this war was necessary in the first place. It can hardly give comfort to the world that legitimate resentments to the status quo in that part of the world will give rise to support of an amoral tyrant who has given no evidence that he cares about those concerns simply because he is “standing up to” the United States and the “mercantile autocracies” which have supported it.

The problems of the Third World countries are caused to a great extent by the peoples’ inability to look beyond their hatred toward real solutions. I do not believe that this war is about subjugating the Middle East to our will, but rather to allow free trade among nations to the mutual enrichment of all. We get oil, they get money to build an infrastructure that will support their own economic development. If their leaders are not up to this task, the people of the Middle East must develop leaders who are. The United States can only set an example, but our freedom cannot be forced on the rest of the world.

Once this war is ended, it will be important for Middle East leaders and opinion makers to work toward this ideal and bring the people of that region into the 21st Century with all of the personal freedom and dignity that we here in the United States and the rest of the Western world enjoy. The Arab-Israeli tensions must cease because they have become a distraction which has crowded out discussion of those real solutions required. Hatred does not yield a positive result. Only mutual understanding and respect can give negotiations a chance for success.

ROSEMARY LOVEN

Rowland Heights