Kay Abandons Search for Weapons in Iraq

In light of the resignation of chief Iraq weapons inspector David Kay (Jan. 24) and his assertion that no weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, the search is on for the cause of the intelligence failure that led to President Bush’s pre-war assertion about Iraq’s massive WMD effort. Kay has cast a significant shadow of doubt on the major justification for the war. Perhaps, in time, the alleged intelligence failure may also prove to be a phantom, for one has to wonder if it was the intelligence itself or the interpretation thereof that led to the president’s conclusion that war was necessary.

It is deeply troubling that the American people will condone the impeachment of a president who foolishly committed and then lied about his sexual indiscretions but committed no acts with an effect on American policy while continuing to support a president who lied about his foreign policy intentions, mortgaged our children’s future by creating a massive deficit and provided disingenuous justification for a costly war. Last week, the president backpedaled to an assertion that Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction-related program activities” provided justification for war. I breathlessly await the revelation of the “smoking gun”: Recent intelligence data have revealed that Iraqi scientists had constructed Lego scale models of nuclear warheads and the Ebola virus.

Drew N. Kelner

Newbury Park

*

One of the reasons we liked Saddam Hussein in the first place was because we knew he was a modernist who would keep fundamentalists under his thumb (Jan. 25). How ironic that Bush’s aggressiveness, whether for oil or politics, may well render the women of Iraq even less free than under Hussein. But that should be no surprise. Bush is trying to roll back the clock for women in America too. He wants them all to get hooked up with a straight male.

Shiite leaders are asking for a direct one-man, one-vote election. We don’t even have that when it comes to presidential elections, not as long as the electoral college is in place.

Frederick Cleveland

Hollywood