Strikes Against Iraq

* The U.S. airstrikes on Feb. 16 against air defense sites outside Baghdad are indefensible. The Bush administration claims that the strikes were “routine,” but when innocent civilians are killed, injured and terrorized, U.S. policy and routine operations must change. We are not at war with Iraq, and our security is not at risk.

Let us hope that public opposition to this “show of resolve” persuades President Bush and his foreign policy team that military might is not the answer to conflict--however eager they might be to demonstrate power and toughness.

LENORE NAVARRO DOWLING

Los Angeles

*

The Bush foreign policy team began Friday with an A+ but by midday had flat flunked its first major foreign policy test. The superior mark was for the visit of the president and secretary of State to Mexico, an action intended to show that the new administration plans to bring all of Latin America in out of the cold it experienced during the Clinton years. But then, even as the presidents were talking in Mexico, the U.S. suddenly resumed bombing targets outside the no-fly zone in Iraq.

It is hard to believe that action could not have waited until Monday so the Mexico meeting could have had its weekend in the media sun. With the bombing the president sabotaged his own message that Latin America is of top-headline importance to the United States. This foolish and irresponsible timing sends the world a message that the administration, for all its “heavy hitters,” still has only a very shaky grasp on the priorities of its foreign policy.

WILLIAM RATLIFF

Senior Research Fellow

Hoover Institution, Stanford

*

So now South Korea has joined the chorus of some of our other “allies” in criticizing the raid near Baghdad, its national news agency saying the raid “confirmed the U.S. policy of emphasizing military supremacy” (Feb. 18). Indeed.

Except for our “military supremacy,” South Korea would no longer exist. It would be one Korea with the North running everything.

One can only hope, with the new administration, we may finally see an end to our troops being in that country after some 50 years. Bring the troops home! The same can be said of other parts of the world, most especially Europe.

JOHN M. CONCILIO

Garden Grove