Some Lessons and Legacies From the Postwar Period
Now that we are all basking in our collective national pride, knowing that we can kick serious patootie on ragtag Third World armies, isn’t it about time to mend some fences? President Bush has become the playground bully who steals the other kids’ lunch money and then goes into a petulant pout, blaming them when they do not want to play on his team. It is the old “blame the victim” mentality, and this president is big on extracting revenge.
It is not the fault of France, Germany and the other countries that they could not buy Bush’s phony reasons for invading Iraq. They were well aware of his true reasons, even if the American public was not. The Bush administration left a paper trail on its plan for invasion.
What the administration wanted from the start, and is about to get, is a U.S. presence in the Middle East and the ability to control the flow of oil.
Darryl Dickey
Northridge
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What is America’s greatest fear? What fear causes America to spend billions in defending itself? What country today represents the greatest fear, on our part, that it has the gumption to do what the 9/11 terrorists did? If any country shelters terrorists, trains them and encourages them, what should America do to that country?
Syria is not only a rogue country but a haven for terrorists. While in its face, why not destroy the regime that rules with hatred and turns its people into suicidal maniacs, maniacs who could kill another 3,000 in America and this time destroy Washington, New York and Los Angeles? What are we waiting for?
Harvey Dunn
Woodland Hills
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I was disappointed and frankly surprised by the prurient tone of “Behind Iraq’s Green Door” (editorial, April 16). So Saddam Hussein had a taste for liquor and pornography -- Mafia don is a style that knows no borders.
Of all the hypocrisies laid bare by our invasion of Iraq (including our sudden zeal to “impose” democracy and our willingness to protect oil wells but not cultural artifacts), the contrast between Hussein’s cult of personality and his very human peccadilloes seems the least noteworthy.
Sean Smith
Los Angeles
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In “Weapons By the Barrel” (April 16), on the vast caches of weapons found in Iraq, you quote a U.S. Army engineer as saying, “Why does any country need more guns than people?” A fine question, and one that needs to be posed not regarding Iraq but about our own country, where nut-case advocates, conveniently ignoring the first half of the 2nd Amendment, have stymied all efforts at rational control of firearms.
Henry J. Silverman
Los Angeles
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With reference to the administration berating Syria for letting Iraqis flee across its borders: If it is all that easy to seal borders, how come we haven’t sealed the border with Mexico?
Louise L. Palmer
San Luis Obispo
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President Bush and his cronies have opened an Iraqi Pandora’s box in the name of the American people. Now we become responsible for all that comes out, including looting and cultural ruin by thugs and bandits. Their claim that they “did not expect this” only shows how easy it is to put on blinders when the many lessons clearly on record are inconvenient to our imperialistic purpose.
Sandra Sutherland
Newport Beach
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The greatest Iraqi looter of all is Halliburton Co.
Samuel M. Rosen
Newbury Park