Seeking answers about war

Re “Bush won’t say that he was misled on Iraq,” May 14

President Bush stated, “I was disappointed to see how flawed our intelligence was.” The question that should be asked now is: If the intelligence he received had informed him that it was unlikely that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, would he have gone to war?

Paul Waller

Woodland Hills

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This whole sad affair is so much nonsense. A body of internationally respected scientists went to Iraq and inspected for evidence of so-called weapons of mass destruction. They came up empty-handed, and their findings were televised to the whole world.

We may never know why Bush, with Vice President Dick Cheney’s help, went ahead with this war. Did he believe that his approval rating would rise, just like his father’s did after the Persian Gulf War? Or is there a more sinister reason for this terrible wrong?

Dale A. Page

Granada Hills

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How gratifying it must be to the 4,000 families that have seen the true equation of war that President Bush has honored their sacrifice by giving up his golf game.

Acknowledging that he had lied us into a war and resigning immediately would have been the best way for him to respond.

Jack Kenna

Whittier

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Re “The ‘Long War’ fallacy,” Opinion, May 13

Andrew J. Bacevich’s article is the best commentary on what faces us that I have seen recently. It should be required reading for every American.

The awful future he portends must not be the legacy we leave. Has America come this far only to be brought down by a modern “100 Years War,” by the reactionary thinking of an aberrant administration whose fears and misguided response to 9/11 was to select the wrong target? Admittedly, terrorism must be dealt with strongly. But useless obsessing over winning the war in Iraq only indicates that Al Qaeda has won the first round.

Mark Rosenblatt

Westwood

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Bacevich writes, “The immediate danger to the American way of life comes not from the terrorists but from our own adamant refusal to live within our means.”

With his permission, I would add “or our laws” to this sentence to complete his oh-so-sadly-true piece.

Tony O’Doherty

Bermuda Dunes