Who’s the Enemy -- Bush or Bin Laden?

As I read letter after letter criticizing President Bush and his advisors regarding the Iraq situation, it is clear to me that decades of deteriorating public education have created at least one generation, if not more, of historical illiterates. When you add the input of baby boomers still so full of themselves over their “victory” as Vietnam War protesters, well, our country is in a real pickle.

No one wants to go to war. No one wants our military or innocent Iraqis to die. We cannot, however, forget that Hitler was appeased and ended up killing millions. We cannot forget that war on the home front means sacrifice, not just paying more to fill up the SUV. If you want to live in a world terrorized by fundamentalists who will not listen to a dialogue of ideas, let alone allow dissenters to speak, then continue to act as though Bush is the enemy rather than Osama bin Laden. Tell that to the women who are free to take off their veils in Afghanistan.

Rebecca Mocciaro

Los Angeles

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Re “Activists Come to Baghdad as ‘Shields,’ ” Feb. 14: I couldn’t care less what happens to these nut cases. But bringing an innocent pet along -- remember, this dog didn’t volunteer -- puts them beneath contempt.

Arthur Hansl

Santa Monica

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Re “Bush Says U.N. Must Act or Be ‘Irrelevant,’ ” Feb. 14: Unless we abide by the constraints imposed by a democratic process governed by international law, the “risk of irrelevance” proclaimed by Bush will be to our role as a true global leader, and not to the United Nations.

Given the strong (but nevertheless still circumstantial) evidence that Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction, the Security Council must exert inexorable pressure to unearth at least one smoking gun and then force Hussein to disarm. War, with its potentially awful consequences, may ultimately be inevitable, but it should be truly the last resort, after everything else has failed, and must be legitimized by the unanimous support of the great powers.

Peter C. Baron

Fullerton

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Bush is quoted as saying, “I’m optimistic that free nations will show backbone and courage in the face of true threats to peace and freedom.” Fortunately for us all, the French government is showing that backbone.

Steve Boyer

Los Angeles

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Has partisan hatred become so blind that someone can honestly believe that “the real threat to peace and stability is not Hussein, it is Bush and his arrogant, reckless administration” (letter, Feb. 14)? To equate any president, regardless of his party, to a murderous dictator is shameful and trivializes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Iran, Kuwait and Iraq who have died at Hussein’s hands.

Pete Lewis

Trabuco Canyon

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Want an accurate poll of what the American public thinks about war on Iraq? Take a look at the Dow Jones and Nasdaq averages for the last month or so.

Richard Vidan

Lawndale

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The idea that this administration and Bin Laden are both eager for war against Iraq makes me nervous. Or perhaps Bin Laden is really worried because this war will deny him access to all those nasty weapons Hussein is supposed to give him. If we took half of the time, money and energy spent on our obsession with Iraq and spent it on improving homeland security, and spent the other half going after Al Qaeda, we would be significantly better off than in the nightmare scenario we’re presently facing.

Philip Wagner

Los Angeles

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Let me figure this out. The administration extracts nearly $400 billion from taxpayers to maintain our national defense with smart bombs, unmanned drones and whatnot. Now, we’re told to buy duct tape and plastic sheets to protect ourselves. Hey, do they think I’m some kind of dummy? I figure the government owes me a free roll of tape and a couple of those sheets.

Lanny Sher

Los Angeles

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We can’t keep track of what happened to our toxic biohazardous materials (Feb. 12). But we expect Iraq to provide us with perfect records of the last trace of hazardous materials that we say it has. Right!

H.P. Chin

Whittier