Security Council Credibility and Threat of War

If, as James Traub warns (Commentary, Feb. 23), an American war against Iraq without United Nations approval would damage the credibility of the Security Council, then we should add this to the already long list of excellent reasons to get started.

The Security Council, which was supposedly designed to protect the world against the barbarity of aggressive totalitarians, has instead spit in the face of tyranny’s victims by accepting Syria as a member and assigning it to its Counter-Terrorism Committee. It now acts as a dedicated advocate against American self-defense. Traub makes no attempt to explain why the preservation of this corrupt body is desirable. Let’s consign the U.N. Security Council to the irrelevance it has been begging for -- and while we’re at it, maybe the Commission on Human Rights can share its fate.

Bryan Hochstetler

Santa Ana

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Regarding Michael Ramirez’s Feb. 23 cartoon equating the U.N. with the League of Nations: If Ramirez read some history, he would know that a major reason for the failure of the League of Nations was the United States’ failure to join it.

Since American conservatives have been trying for decades to render the U.N. “irrelevant,” their current crocodile tears over it are not quite convincing. By defining both “cooperation” and “alliance” to mean international subservience to whatever the U.S. wants, the Bushies may finally succeed in destroying not only the U.N. but NATO as well, and then they will be oh, so sorry.

David Datz

Altadena

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One for the Guinness book: Let’s go, protesters! Let’s march again! Saddam Hussein has slaughtered over 1 million already. If we really put our minds to it, we can beat that 6 million.

John Arndt

Redondo Beach

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U.N. Charter, 1945: “The purposes of the United Nations are ... to maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace.... “ Perhaps the naysayers need to be reminded.

Cal Parker

North Upland

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As the Bush administration continues its relentless push toward war in the Middle East, a few questions are beginning to haunt me. Where does the U.S. get the $15 billion or more to buy Turkey’s acquiescence in this endeavor when so many of the schools, parks, highways, railroads and general infrastructure in this country are either neglected, understaffed or underfunded? Where does the money come from to pay for the inevitable occupation and “nation-building” of Iraq after the bombing of Baghdad is complete? Who is left holding the bag if our financial markets continue to weaken while our national debt continues to soar out of control with no clear direction in sight for either? It seems evident to me that President Bush needs a lot more than a focus group to keep from running our own country into a ditch.

Randy Cox

Santa Barbara

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Now that Turkey is close to falling in line, Bush can proceed with his “Coalition of the Bribed and the Blackmailed.”

Douglas Stark

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Saturday headlines: “U.S., Britain to Tell U.N. It Has 3 Weeks on Iraq” and “U.S. to Resume Food Aid to North Korea.”

What am I missing here?

Hortense Friedman

Sherman Oaks