The U.S. Must Prevent Terrorists From Acting

Re “Taps for Preemptive War,” editorial, Feb. 11: It surely was a good thing we “took the high road” in 1940 and waited until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and killed thousands. By the time we were prepared and capable of waging our offensive in the Pacific Theater, we lost thousands more. Thank God we did the same in Europe. By waiting until we had “real” provocation, only millions of Poles, Russians, French, British and Jews perished. Maybe we need to look again at our road map. Maybe what we call the “high road” isn’t.

Norman Shubert

Calabasas

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Robert Scheer fails to look at the consequences of neglecting to act against evil incarnate (Commentary, Feb. 10). In a future where the U.S. had not ousted Saddam Hussein, the kind of terrorist acts that he might have given the go-ahead for don’t leave a footprint. Hussein could have remained cloaked; his huge oil wealth would have bought him endless opportunities for trouble and, after witnessing the successful terrorist hits on 9/11, such actions might have seemed realistic to his twisted mind.

Should President Bush gamble with the lives of millions of Americans and all our government institutions just to be 100% sure of fairness to Hussein, who was a known user of weapons of mass destruction? You don’t need a WMD program at home when you can buy WMD with your oil millions from countries like Pakistan. We might have been putting up with the sons of Hussein in 2055.

Praise to Bush for ending this horrible future scenario.

Ken C. Arnold

Santa Monica

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While the president struggled through a nationally televised interview intended to bolster his sagging approval ratings last Sunday, he eagerly boasted of being a “war president.” His choice of words said far less about his ability to fight terrorism and lead our nation through a traumatic time than about his own sense of self-justification.

What our country needs from the president (or from a Democratic nominee) is neither war nor moral absolutism. We need, instead, a president with a new foreign policy who can play a positive leadership role in the world community and who will disavow the doctrines of regime change, preemptive war and the pursuit of permanent American military supremacy. In short, we need a peace president who can lead through consensus instead of confrontation.

Rob Schweber

Los Angeles