Bombing Iraq

I was appalled to read Defense Secretary William S. Cohen’s comments about the effect or lack thereof that the planned bombing of Iraq will have on accomplishing the U.S. government’s alleged goals of getting Iraq to comply with U.N. weapons inspections (“U.S. Warns of Limits of Air Attack on Iraqi Sites,” Feb. 1). His statements imply that the American public should not expect Iraq to comply with the U.N. inspectors even after a U.S. military strike. So why is our government planning to bomb and inevitably kill numerous Iraqi civilians if such an action will not achieve its purported goal?

It is time that our government stop this testosterone-driven foreign policy and embark on a full-force diplomatic strategy that does have a chance of achieving long-lasting peace and stability in our relations with Iraq.

HERBERT A. MEDINA

Los Angeles

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President Clinton has sent a representative abroad to get support for our policy against Iraq. We propose bombing Iraq into submission. That is the policy that Hitler tried against England, and it failed. Each bomb gave the British people more resolve to fight back.

The Iraqi people will fight back against the nation that spends $20 billion per year developing new nuclear weapons, allows Israel to have nuclear weapons but insists that Iraq cannot have nuclear weapons or even the poor man’s weapons of mass destruction.

Let’s hope that Russia or France can convince Clinton of the fallacy of this policy.

EDWARD C. PERRY II

Palm Springs

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Let’s remind the 50% of Americans who favor launching air strikes against Iraq, in order to kick Saddam Hussein’s butt (Times poll, Feb. 2), that we may very well get our own butts kicked in return. We are still paying the price for the last blitz against Iraq. Thousands of Gulf War veterans came out of that engagement suffering from illnesses that are still unrecognized and unpaid for, not to mention the damage to Iraq’s environment and the horrors visited on Iraq’s children, which continue.

We urge the great leaders of this world, including President Clinton, to work for a peaceful solution to this crisis. We should have learned by now that every war in our history has planted the seeds for the next one. When will we learn?

ROSEMARY GOULD, President

Veterans for Peace, Orange County

Laguna Hills