Report illustrates deception on Iraq

Re “Senate: Hussein Wasn’t Allied With Al Qaeda,” Sept. 9

Kudos to the Senate Intelligence Committee for exposing President Bush’s greedy folly. Though this report comes too late to save the lives of more than 2,600 U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis, Americans now see how Bush and his cronies exploited our fear to their economic and political advantage. With my thinking distorted by the horrible events of 9/11, I wholeheartedly believed, in March of 2003, the Bush administration’s wacky rhetoric of good versus evil and joined pro-war demonstrations. Across the street from me stood the saner antiwar protesters. With the 2008 elections looming, Bush will justify his “stay the course” policy in Iraq while solidifying the vote for another Republican president by preaching the terrors of the “axis of evil” to evoke fear in American voters.

But after reading the Senate’s report, I’m crossing the street -- and voting for any candidate who will get us out of Iraq.

HELEN TACKETT

Fullerton

*

The recent poll that has 43% of Americans continuing to believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11 should not be surprising. The White House misinformation campaign has been the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s political survival.

In speech after speech, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have done their best to deceive Americans. The uncourageous media has gone with the flow, just as the GOP would have it.

BILL ROLFING

Laguna Beach

*

In response to the Senate report that Saddam Hussein was not supporting Al Qaeda terrorists, White House spokesman Tony Snow calls this old news and insists that we ignore it and concentrate on the present. This latest Snow job is nonsense. The past is the present because the same arrogant, militaristic, ideologically driven administration that invaded Iraq is still running the show with the same mind-set. That Hussein was opposed to Islamism and its terrorists was old news before we invaded Iraq, but it didn’t fit Bush’s justifications for the disastrous invasion.

DAVID EGGENSCHWILER

Los Angeles

*

The Senate Intelligence Committee has recently reported that there were no ties between Saddam Hussein and terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi, that Hussein actually repeatedly rebuffed requests from Osama bin Laden for assistance and that there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. So can someone explain why Bush should not be charged with war crimes?

DAVE ESPOSITO

Hermosa Beach