After Iraq War, Muslims Fear a U.S. Attack

Re “7 of 8 Islamic Nations in Poll Fear U.S. Attack,” June 4: I may have to surrender any liberal credentials I have left, but that is probably a good thing. If Islamic nations fear U.S. reprisal, then maybe they will do more to reel in terror groups such as Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Fatah that -- in the name of Islam -- indiscriminately kill thousands of Americans, Israelis, Australians and other Westerners. There is also some historical precedent at work. At the end of the Nixon administration, when the Soviets believed he was unstable, they were cautious and perhaps even backed off a little.

Billy Sottile

Lancaster

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Iraq is an economic, political, medical and environmental disaster. Many American and British soldiers are dead, thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead and untold masses of Iraqi soldiers are also dead. Major news sources are reporting that officials inside the White House and Pentagon say Iran and North Korea are next. I don’t know why everyone is looking for missing weapons of mass destruction; they can be found in Washington. Their names are President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and Pentagon advisor Richard Perle.

Alethea Guthrie

Malibu

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The debate on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq shouldn’t be reduced to a win for the Republicans if they are found and a win for the Democrats if not. The clear problem is that if members of this administration were right about large amounts of WMD being present in Iraq, their self-serving and, as such, overly hasty determination to invade that country and pick up the pieces later has now caused, even temporarily, this huge WMD stockpile to be lost, potentially endangering everybody.

Sean McCarver

Encino

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It is better to have Iraq free and Western political furor over as-yet-undiscovered Iraqi WMD than to have Hussein still in power and the ominous question of Iraqi WMD unanswered. No matter what the political fallout is for Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair over Iraqi WMD, they did the right thing.

Jim Ketcham

Malibu

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It is evident to me now that there never were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If so, where are they? It is liberating to have the wool off my eyes. I now realize there never really was a Saddam Hussein. If there was, we certainly would have found him.

Mitch Twersky

Culver City