Bush Wants Iraq’s Leader Eliminated

It looks as if President Bush and the rest of the people running this country have decided to take a more proactive approach as a result of 9/11 and realize the importance of eliminating Saddam Hussein as he continues to prepare weapons of mass destruction. Bush has declared Iraq part of an “axis of evil.” Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell had a chance before, with George H.W. Bush, and came to the same conclusion, but public opinion was against them.

Now, taking it one step further, we are borrowing the plot from Steven Spielberg’s new movie, “Minority Report.” Our government is stopping the crime before it is committed by rounding up suspects without charging them, throwing our Constitution out the window. The implications of this practice are hard to imagine--just as is the continuing existence of Hussein, who must be “removed” for the good of world peace. In the process of capturing him, if we have to kill him in self-defense, as Bush has evidently approved of, so be it. Assassination or “self-defense,” it’s all semantics. It’s obvious that something has to be done. This is no Hollywood movie, and there are no easy endings.

Paul Solomon

Encino

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Re “U.S. Goes It Alone at Its Own Peril,” editorial, June 18: Going it alone in war against Iraq and other nations must come at great sacrifice of the American people. Without the combined military resources of our allies it would be folly to attempt war with our present armed forces. The magnitude and duration of such a war are unknown. Who else would jump on us while we were preoccupied in that conflict?

Going it alone means a military draft. Planning must be for the worst possible military situation and conscription without deferments for college, jobs and the children of powerful families. We don’t need that Vietnam squabble again. That’s the possible sacrifice we will have to make in going it alone.

Ken Johnson

Pinon Hills

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Ernest Lefever’s June 17 commentary on assassination of heads of state was persuasive. However, perhaps the most important reason for Gerald Ford’s policy was the tacit understanding he encouraged among heads of state that they would not engage in assassinations. Thus, to a degree, the life of our own president was more secure.

William G. Willoughby

La Verne