Saddam Hussein

Re “Iraq Offer to Open Sites Excludes U.N. Team,” Nov. 28:

Saddam Hussein has outfoxed us once again. His latest scam in demanding the substitution of foreign diplomats in place of United Nations inspectors will provide a human shield against military action and further wear down the resolve of the U.N. This once again begs the reassessment of the U.N.’s current status as an instrument of peace with actual and real weapons protection for all nations on the planet.

Over the past 52 years our dealings with the U.N. have been much like a romantic evening with your date where she brings along her kid brother with his whole Boy Scout troop. Question: What does the U.N. bring to the U.S. besides the self-interest of France and a partial nyet from the Russians?

LESTER KUSHNER

Valley Village

* How medieval of the U.S. to consider crushing Saddam with brute military power when a simple, cheap, state-of-the-art strategy simply begs to do the job. Our nation could use its vast advertising expertise and muscle to obliterate Hussein. Our blaring media could bombard the Iraqis with eye-opening facts about their leader. A radio barrage into Iraq by our satirists and mavens would reduce that egomaniac to laughable nakedness before his own people. The “bad dad” of Baghdad is a natural media target--squirreling away his 47 palaces while kids starve.

Mark Twain, in “The Mysterious Stranger,” wrote: “Only laughter can blow a [colossal humbug] to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand. You are always fussing and fighting with your other weapons. Do you ever use that one?”

GEORGE W. FEINSTEIN

Altadena

* Can the Iraq foreign minister, who has an “answer” for everything, explain how Saddam could find the money to build 47 enormous castles but cannot find the money to feed his country’s children?

HERBERT L. WALLERSTEIN JR.

Beverly Hills