Assured Destruction May Not Be Mutual
For more than 30 years, the United States had a nuclear stalemate with the Soviets and no one fired a shot. Instead of risking a full-scale war with Iraq, we should just let Saddam Hussein know that our dozens of ICBMs with nuclear warheads are aimed at his country. If he fires first, Iraq will be annihilated.
Richard Bare
Newport Beach
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Re a Sept. 8 letter: Containment of the Soviet Union succeeded because the U.S. and the USSR recognized that an attack by either country would result in the annihilation of both. Hussein, on the other hand, would not hesitate to anonymously donate chemical or even nuclear weapons to terrorist groups to serve his interests and deny all responsibility after an attack occurs.
Iraq is not the Soviet Union, and the Cold War policy of containment must be updated to deal with the modern threat posed by Iraq and state-sponsored terrorism.
David Sizemore
Saugus
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