The Money Piled Up While a Nation Suffered

“Soldiers Stumble on Outrageous Fortune,” April 19:

American soldiers uncovered an estimated $650 million believed to have been hoarded by senior members of the Baath Party and the Republican Guard. A U.S. Treasury official assured Iraq that “any assets belonging to Saddam Hussein and his cronies will be returned to the Iraqi people.” For an economy in ruins, that money is a godsend. The recovered loot should just about cover the down payments to Bechtel and Halliburton for rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by American missiles.

Stephen H. Mette

Rolling Hills Estates

*

The discovery of $650 million in cash in Baghdad puts an end to the big lie by the blame-America, hate-America crowd that it was the U.S.-instituted (and United Nations-backed) economic sanctions that caused the suffering and deaths of half a million Iraqi children. These funds, along with the several billion dollars that Hussein has undoubtedly stashed away in Swiss bank accounts, would have paid for all the food and medicine necessary to have prevented this tragedy. The blame can now be placed exactly where it belongs, at the feet of Hussein and his brutal regime.

Don W. Hilgendorf

Irvine

*

Re “Iraqis Protest U.S., Demand Islamic State,” April 19: The good news is that there are many Iraqis who yearn for democracy. The bad news is that there nevertheless seem to be many, many more who want a theocracy, with an imam running the country.

Could it turn out that we will have liberated Iraq from a secular government (albeit a ruthless dictatorship) only to set the stage for Iraq to end up just where we don’t want it to be (a fundamentalist dictatorship)?

Larry Kaufman

Los Angeles

*

Does anyone else find it ironic that thousands of Iraqis are demonstrating in the streets for an Islamic government? They shout their anger at the U.S. presence -- and yet it is only that presence that makes their demonstrations possible. A few weeks ago, they wouldn’t have dared to stage such a protest; they know they would have been slaughtered. If the U.S. is the “bad guy,” why is this the first time in a generation that the Iraqis are able to express their opinions without fear of reprisals?

Stewart Margolis

Los Angeles

It’s really sad that so many people living in this country would rather see America fail than President Bush succeed.

Andy Crawford

Long Beach

*

Now that our search for weapons of mass destruction has begun in Iraq, it is high time to refocus on the issues that arose before the war. Specifically, the Enron fiasco, Vice President Dick Cheney’s connection to the energy companies and the tanking economy.

Sergio Corona

Baldwin Park

*

Alphabet soup: It has become obvious that GWB is suffering from the WMD syndrome. Is there a cure? Only when the CIA has completed its assignment of bringing WMDs into Iraq to be “discovered” will GWB’s symptoms appear to subside. Unfortunately, his disease, manifested by extreme hallucinations, appears to be incurable. Until, that is, the next election.

Colleen Rose

Calabasas