Putting Foreign Policy Into Historical Context

Re “Banned Arms Flowed Into Iraq Through Syrian Firm,” Dec. 30: Kudos to reporters Jeffrey Fleishman and Bob Drogin for their incredible expose of the Syrian arms suppliers to Iraq. Perhaps their digging around and pressing Syrian officials in recent months can explain Syrian President Bashar Assad’s sudden and surprising call last month to renew peace talks with Israel. Faced with a public relations disaster, did Assad jump to preempt?

Lenny Ben-David

Washington

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Re “The U.S. Winked at Hussein’s Evil,” Commentary, Dec. 30: The U.S. was no more cynical allying itself with Saddam Hussein against the Iranians than when we allied ourselves with Josef Stalin against the Nazis during World War II. Stalin was Hussein’s role model, so why hasn’t Robert Scheer impugned Franklin Roosevelt’s reputation by attributing cynicism or hypocrisy to the Democratic architects of a foreign policy that gave us 45 years of “blowback” during the Cold War? Stalin’s gulags and secret police wrought far more terror and death than Hussein did. Does that make Roosevelt more cynical than presidents Reagan or Bush?

People like Scheer with simple-minded moral philosophies should not be practicing or critiquing foreign policy. In an imperfect world, the enemy of our enemy is often the “friend” we have to work with, warts and all. At the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s export of fundamentalist Islamic revolution was far more threatening than Hussein’s Iraq. Things change, and U.S. policy changed with the times.

David Barulich

Los Angeles

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Hussein is in the bag. And the insurrection continues with no letup. This is not what Bush & Co. had in mind and it certainly riles Paul Bremer. The administration is deluded. Iraqis hated Hussein. And now that he’s gone, they hate the Americans more. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Why?

Iraqi leadership skills are undergoing rapid evolutionary change. For the first time in 30 years, Iraqis have decentralized decision-making opportunities. Sunni, Shiite, nationalist, Baathist -- everybody is on the move. Direct decisions are made without oversight or approval from a distant centralized source. Motive and weaponry intersect neatly in a wide-open gun culture that would make the National Rifle Assn. proud. Some will be caught and killed. Along the way they are sharpening their game. The knowledge base will increase.

Coalition appointees like Ahmad Chalabi have been sidelined, and they are uneasy. They know that sooner rather than later, the U.S. will abandon them and their countrymen will come after them. And their sponsors in Washington, Bechtelistan and Halliburtonia will murmur their regrets, turn their backs and wait for the blood to dry somewhat before the next round.

Larry Gassan

Los Angeles

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I don’t recall anyone planning a perfect war, and the Democrats cannot claim any successes of their own. In the aftermath of WWII, they ceded Eastern Europe to Russia, and the best they could do in Korea was a draw. Vietnam was a true quagmire, Somalia a national embarrassment and an attempt at nation-building in Haiti an abject failure.

It is easy to criticize in hindsight; foresight is a little harder.

Gary A. Robb

Los Feliz