Huffington on the Responses to Victory

Re “Victory Aside, the Invasion Was a Bad Idea,” Commentary, April 16: There are strong arguments both pro and con about the attack on Iraq. Unfortunately, this shrill commentary by Arianna Huffington misses the mark entirely when it attempts to turn some of the most positive results into negatives.

For example, she says that we shouldn’t point to the fact that the Iraqis are celebrating their liberation from the “murderous tyrant.” Why shouldn’t we? The fact is that the people of Iraq now have a chance to flourish for the first time in many years. Also, the number of civilian casualties in the war is dwarfed by the mayhem that was committed by the Iraqi regime each year. This lack of objectivity shown by Huffington sounds like a severe case of sour grapes!

Don Jortner

Rancho Palos Verdes

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I have to say “right on” to Huffington. She cut right through all the congratulatory back-slapping by the talking heads in Washington, whose ambitions and coffers are now swelled at the expense of the many lives lost on both sides. The future of our country has been put up for ransom by those who benefit from this arrogant show of overkill. I hope Huffington and others will continue to speak out against the growing imperialism of our leaders. It’s our children who will pay for years to come.

Lynn Lapin

Marina del Rey

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Huffington writes that “the speedy fall of Baghdad proves the antiwar movement was dead right” because “the whole pretext for our unilateral charge into Iraq was that the American people were in imminent danger from Hussein and his mighty war machine.” This is simply wrong. Neither the antiwar movement nor the pro-invasion hawks said that Iraq posed a conventional war threat to the U.S. The issue was weapons of mass destruction and the danger that the now-deposed Iraqi regime would either use those weapons or convey them to others who might, like Al Qaeda.

It is clear that, at least on this point, neither side has been proved right or wrong; only when WMDs are found, or conclusively determined not to exist, can vindication occur. In addition, the issue of WMDs was not the “whole pretext” for the invasion; it was a part. The other part was the liberation of the Iraqi people, something that has thankfully come to pass, even if Huffington must denigrate the joy of newfound freedom by calling it the “Baghdad Bugaloo.”

Phillip C. Hughey

Washington

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Learning from the past is important. Take Pyrrhus, King of ancient Epirus, who discovered almost 2,300 years ago that invasions can be a bad idea, even when you win. When Pyrrhus led his army against the Romans at Asculum, he was victorious in battle but paid a heavy price in the deaths of his men: “Another such victory and I shall be ruined.”

The lesson he learned has come down to us as a “Pyrrhic victory,” which describes a war that costs more than it was worth. We need to remember this term as our president, with unilateral zeal, pursues first one preemptive war and then another, and then another.

Ula Pendleton

Los Angeles