U.S. Strike on Iraq

* President Clinton would have us believe that the assassination plot against George Bush was an attack against all U.S. citizens (“U.S. Attacks Iraq to Retaliate for Alleged Plot to Kill Bush,” June 27), yet our retaliation (which has already taken the lives of several Iraqi civilians) is not an attack against the people of Iraq but against their government. Further, that it is justified under the U.N. Charter as “self-defense.”

Who can believe such insane double-speak? Given the record of U.S. Tomahawk missiles straying off course during the Persian Gulf War, the extreme likelihood of killing at least one civilian had to have been known. Such a policy can only be justified under the idea that some human lives are more important than others (George Bush vs. eight Iraqi civilians). Would you trade your mother, or brother, or child for the former head of state of a distant country?

BEVERLY KLEMME

Los Angeles

* While some of us try to teach youth skills for constructive conflict, the U.S. government again shows its affinity for international “drive-bys.”

JOE MAIZLISH

Los Angeles

* Ah, the irony of politics! Who would have thought a former protester of the Vietnam War and military service, dovish Bill Clinton, would be so quick to grasp the sword?

His decisive action in Somalia, and most recently in Iraq, once again proves President Clinton’s mettle and true leadership ability as the commander in chief.

As a Vietnam veteran, I had mixed emotions about President Clinton’s visit to the Vietnam memorial in Washington. But he stood his ground. Now he has acted against aggression and terrorism and fixed in my mind that he stands tall in the saddle. We can rest assured the world is still on course to being a safer place.

RONALD CHARLES NESBIT

Corona

* The sickness, malaise, and violent nature of the American people are so evident in the reaction to the bombing of Baghdad. A new President works to increase jobs, reduce the deficit, improve health care and place the tax burden on the rich who can most afford it, and his popularity declines. So he drops a few bombs, kills some people and he is acclaimed as decisive and his rating soars.

MARION PACK, Executive Director

Alliance for Survival, Santa Ana

* By the recent actions, the Administration has put Iraq on the front burner again. This country’s interest in violent solutions has been reignited, and Clinton has succumbed to the apparent demand for a President to demonstrate he can pull the trigger in foreign affairs. What morality dictates that we cannot go after Saddam Hussein directly, because he is a head of state, but we can kill innocent civilians while trying to teach their leader a lesson?

And, obviously, if killing 200,000 Iraqis in the Gulf war did not convey a lesson to Hussein, no one really believes that killing a few more, or damaging a building or two, will suddenly make him see the light.

Is this the Administration of change? Sure seems like business as usual to me. I am really disappointed.

ROBERT N. TREUHAFT

Altadena

* Setting aside the question of whether or not someone responsible for the deaths of a quarter-million people should be inconvenienced in any way, the alleged plot to avenge these deaths was not planned by the civilians killed under the orders of Clinton.

As the Department of State merges with the Department of War, as ballistic diplomacy is perpetuated against non-Europeans, Madeleine Albright, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, issues our weekly regrets and other leaders exercise their “chance to act presidential,” we should not be surprised that the circles of collateral damage grow to include ourselves.

The first casualty was our human spirit; the rest is history.

MICHAEL YEOMANS

Goleta

* Hurray for Clinton! His well-planned, well-executed bombing of Iraq puts to rest any doubt about the President’s resolve in military matters. The Republicans were laughable in their verbal gymnastics as they tried to find a way to applaud the military response but criticize the commander in chief.

I found President Clinton’s response measured, thoughtful and appropriate. His goal was to send Saddam Hussein a message that he cannot terrorize Americans. The President accomplished that goal.

CYNTHIA SIMONE

Lake Forest