Surveying Iraq With Allawi at the Helm
Re “Born Under a Cloud of Irony,” Commentary, June 29: Great! Now Robert Scheer’s concern is the welfare of Saddam Hussein.
He is so cynical that the only irony is why he lives in America and not in Iraq. As for suggesting that Hussein be tried under international law “as has been done with former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic,” hasn’t he heard that trial has been going on for almost three years, costing millions of dollars and going nowhere?
Let’s give Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the interim government a chance. Democracy is hard work and doesn’t happen overnight.
Nurit Wilde
Los Angeles
We once again learn through Scheer’s commentary that the new, free Iraq may officially be in the hands of a former terrorist while the media have failed to headline the sordid background of Allawi. President Bush declared Allawi’s appointment as interim prime minister a great victory in the war on terror. Many Bush declarations are carefully orchestrated, Karl Rove-crafted propaganda planks to retain control of the White House for four more years. But in all fairness, all administrations have had the potential for ruthless exploitation of events and the media to attain their ends. Unfortunately, the checks and balances of our government are not working.
This administration has been unchecked by a neoconservative imbalance of power in our government’s three branches and enabled by a corporate media, still silenced by the jingoistic exploitation of 9/11 by this administration.
Jim Hoover
Huntington Beach
To the Washington chicken hawks rationalizing how we have rid the world of the evil Hussein who killed thousands of Iraqis I have one question: Are those Iraqis who have been killed by coalition forces and current insurgents less dead than those killed by Hussein?
Stan Whitsitt
Glendale
A number of letters in response to your excellent June 27 editorial “The Disaster of Failed Policy” reveal that many still do not accept the apodictic fact that Hussein had no hand in the 9/11 outrage. Bush’s “great courage” (letter, June 29) was perfectly justified in the invasion of Afghanistan but totally served a personal vendetta and idee fixe in the case of the war and occupation of Iraq. Indeed, apart from the tragic loss of lives (American and Iraqi), the focus of terrorism is now clearly in Iraq, whereas before the war Iraq did not represent any threat to this country.
Paul S. McCaig
Dana Point
Re “A Brief Note Upends NATO Summit in Istanbul,” June 29: Is this contrived climax to a contrived war supposed to make me misty-eyed? Bush, Condi and company seem to think we the people are just as fickle-minded in our view of history as a storybook.
“Iraq is sovereign .... “ “Let freedom reign .... “ Are such platitudes to be ones for the ages? In league with “Lafayette, we are here” (Gen. John Pershing, World War I)? If so, I say “Nuts” (Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, World War II).
Timothy Wahl
Glendale
As long as there are American troops stationed in Iraq, and as long as a CIA puppet is the interim prime minister, are the Iraqis really in power?
Jeff Siroty
West Hollywood