Cooperative effort key to war on terrorism

Re “ ‘We Knew Him’: Jordanian Spies Infiltrated Iraq to Find Zarqawi,” June 13

Monday’s briefing by Jordanian officials concerning their help in tracking down militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi shows what a mistake it was for the United States to go to war before lining up help from all of its allies. The article cites experts in counter-terrorism who said the influx of Jordanian intelligence assets produced results in Iraq almost immediately. Perhaps the insurgency could have been defeated had the entire country been under allied control. We will never know, but this episode with the Jordanians hints at a possible outcome -- an outcome that would have come to fruition months or perhaps years, and many lives, ago.

ROBERT DE SPELDER

Pasadena

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I have always thought the war on terror should be fought like this. There needs to be a complete world effort using covert intelligence to find radical extremist leaders and their followers to either capture or kill them. Using the military and making a mess of a country, along with killing many innocent people, is not the way to go.

MATTHEW D. KERSTER

Gardena