Iraqi Weapons: What Went Wrong?

Re “Bush Will Name Panel to Probe Intelligence,” Feb. 2: Now that President Bush has wasted lives and much of our treasury in a war that showcased his post-9/11 patriotism, he has ordered an investigation into what went wrong. The fact is a body of internationally respected scientists reported to the U.N. that they could find no weapons of mass destruction; the fact is Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. Nonetheless, Bush chose to ignore these facts and invaded Iraq. The consequences are for all to see.

Dale A. Page

Granada Hills

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Re “President Owes No Apology for War,” Commentary, Feb. 1: David Horowitz bemoans the possibility that we could get into a confrontation with a nation like Syria or China where we face an “imminent threat” (presumably real this time), and the president would be disbelieved because of what Horowitz so delicately calls the “smear campaign” of the Democrats. But it was the president and his neocon advisors who cried wolf on Iraq, not those of us who questioned the motives behind the administration’s desire to go to war.

It’s not just about the missing weapons of mass destruction. It’s also about the implied connection between Al Qaeda, Hussein and the 9/11 plotters. Bush and his advisors are now on record as saying, “We never said there was a connection,” but they certainly implied it, over and over again. The fact that a large percentage of the American people still believe there was a connection between Hussein and 9/11 is not because the American people jumped to a wild conclusion out of the blue.

Rich Eames

Los Angeles

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The president does owe an apology to the American people and the world. It is a terribly dangerous precedent and a serious violation of international law to invade a country preemptively on the basis of lies and misinformation. It also seems clear that the administration planned to attack Iraq from the very beginning. Iraq was no threat to us, and the U.N. was doing an effective job of monitoring Iraqi weapons production.

The results are tragic and destabilizing for world peace. Our soldiers are being attacked daily, hundreds are dead and thousands wounded, and our weapons have killed and maimed thousands of Iraqis. Billions of dollars that are needed desperately at home are going to Iraq -- and will be for probably years to come.

Ann Edelman

Los Angeles

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The same Democrats who complain about the Iraq war were very quiet about President Clinton’s Balkan adventures, which also did not have U.N. support and whose importance to our national security was tangential at best. It used to be that foreign policy differences between the political parties stopped at the nation’s edge. It is too bad that the Democrats ignore this important tenet.

Paul Knopick

Laguna Hills

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Horowitz suggests that had Clinton invaded Iraq, Democrats would have cheered. Clinton did not invade Iraq. Bush did. Horowitz’s use of a nonapplicable hypothetical to excuse Bush’s action in Iraq only highlights even more the irrationality and unacceptability of the present administration’s preemptive war policy.

Edward McKelvey

Valley Village

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Horowitz writes, “Casualties were minimal.” Over 500 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and the number keeps growing daily. Over 3,000 troops have suffered life-changing injuries. Ask the parents of these statistics if they think they are “minimal.” The casualties of the Iraq war are tragic, unnecessarily tragic. We should never have gone to war in Iraq.

Irving Zieger

Los Angeles

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Re Barbara Hatch Rosenberg’s “The Cupboard Was Bare,” Opinion, Feb. 1: In the long run-up to the war, Iraq trucked large quantities of unknown materials (quite likely related to illegal weapons programs) to Syria, sites that probably will never be searched by the United States or the United Nations.

In giving credit to the Security Council, sanctions and inspections, Rosenberg fails to note that inspectors were stymied by lack of Iraqi cooperation and eventually kicked out by Hussein. There was great pressure from countries such as France to end the sanctions. Only the U.S. military and threat of war got the inspectors back. Her prescription for success against terror-supporting dictators rings hollow.

Jonathan Matthew

Agoura Hills