Saddam Hussein

Charles Krauthammer (Commentary, Dec. 28) suggests that the U.S. can go it alone in its response to Saddam Hussein, and if our so-called allies don’t like it, they can lump it. His logic would have been correct in the 1950s when we were the world’s major producer and exporter of oil. Today, however, the U.S. domestically produces only about 38% of what we consume. Considering our growing dependence on outside sources of oil such as the Arab states and others with surplus oil production, can we ignore their opinions in the long run?

Krauthammer is right when he says that France and other countries will act in their own interest and they perceive their own interest as ensuring long-term oil supplies to their countries. In their view, their own interest does not include embargoes on countries on which in the long run they will be dependent for supplies.

Sooner or later, international policy is always fashioned by economic necessity.

ROBERT C. MASON

Simi Valley

* Saddam Hussein’s crimes do not give the U.N. Security Council license to violate the human rights of 21 million Iraqis via a form of collective punishment. If the council cannot conduct a war that kills hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, why is it allowed to impose sanctions that have the same result?

The entire international community has failed to deal with the ethical question of whether suffering inflicted on vulnerable groups in a targeted country is a justifiable means of exerting pressure on governments we dislike.

ROBERT J. PISAPIA

Westlake Village