Why the Sudden Rush to Go to War With Iraq?

Our current administration is determined to start a war with Iraq. President Bush has said that we really don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, we will attack regardless. According to polls, more than 60% of the American people support this. A war with Iraq is wrong for so many reasons.

It’s morally wrong to preemptively attack a country. Why Iraq and why now? We didn’t attack the Soviet Union when it was our enemy and had nuclear weapons. It is going to stir up ill feelings toward Americans all across the Arab world and probably increase the incidents of terrorism against us, giving us a further reason to escalate our attacks. There will be many casualties if we start a ground war. This one won’t be over in two months. Our young men will die. Many innocent Iraqis will die. I weep for my country.

Elizabeth Estrada

Mission Viejo

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Re “Iraq Says a U.N. Team Can Return; U.S. Dismisses Offer,” Sept. 17: I am confused. President Bush goes before the U.N. and demands action. He demands that the U.N. enforce previous resolutions with respect to weapons inspections. The Iraqi government responds by indicating that it is ready to welcome U.N. weapons inspectors unconditionally. Yet the U.S. immediately dismisses this response as inadequate.

Are we being a little premature here? Are we relying strictly on Iraq’s past behavior to form current strategic policy? Are we focused on just one option, the option of war? Should we not at least test the integrity and truthfulness of Iraq’s response before we condemn it as being “too little, too late”? Are we in such a rush to go to war?

Jeffrey Stein

San Diego

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For inspections in Iraq to be successful, any site that is said to be off limits to the inspectors must become a target for cruise missiles within three hours.

Donald Kerns

Garden Grove

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Bush calls for action on Iraq. What is the rush? People who have visited the country report that the infrastructure is devastated by years of sanctions and intermittent bombings. Bush’s countrymen are suffering from lack of basic health care and quality education and the country is de facto bankrupt--yet he keeps repeating this mantra of how dangerous Saddam Hussein is and that we need to pour billions of dollars into destroying Iraq.

Bombing Afghanistan did not bring terrorists to justice--patience, diplomacy, cooperation and following international laws do that. I strongly question the motives behind this push for military actions against Iraq. Congress and the Senate should do the same.

Elke Heitmeyer

Sherman Oaks

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In 1983, Ronald Reagan said, “If history teaches anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.” We should heed these words today.

John N. Levi Jr.

Los Angeles