Blood Bath in Mideast

I am disappointed in President Bush’s hands-off policy regarding the minority uprisings in Iraq. Had he not verbally encouraged attempts to overthrow the government of Hussein during the war and had he not given force to those words by authorizing the supply of weapons, as the public recently learned, I could understand his current policy.

But it now appears to me that we have jeopardized the position of these people to further our own aims in the Gulf War. In other words, we used them, employing them as a distraction to Iraq’s armed forces only to abandon them later. It smacks of extreme self-interest on our part now that the supply of oil has been secured.

Let’s do the right thing. I’m pleased that we soundly defeated Hussein and his army. But I will be numbed with shame if I must watch Iraq’s minorities suffer the true brunt of that defeat.

GEOFFREY HOUGH

Fullerton