Does the Evidence Support an Attack on Iraq?

President Bush and the White House are determined to attack and topple Saddam Hussein. So it does not matter to them that both the FBI and CIA, the nation’s top spy agencies, have concluded that Iraq was not involved in the Sept. 11 attacks (“U.S. Returns to Theory of Iraqi Link to Sept. 11,” Aug. 2). Bush & Co. believe Hussein is guilty, so he must be guilty. Is it coincidence that this news item was reported on the same front page as the arrest of two former top WorldCom executives, Scott Sullivan and David Myers, for allegedly cooking the books? The philosophy of the administration and its corporate friends seems to be that “If the evidence is not there, go ahead and create it.”

Charles Blankson

Fontana

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I have only one question about last week’s Senate hearings on the U.S. going to war in Iraq: Why was no one invited to testify who disagreed with the idea?

Kevin McKiernan

Santa Barbara

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Thank you for publishing “Scientist Warns of Iraq’s Nuclear Gains” (Aug. 1). Instead of contemplating possible military campaigns against Iraq, perhaps we should be asking why we’re considering attacking a country that we gave military support and aid to up until 1990.

The United States approved the licensed sale of the components used to create the very weapons of mass destruction that now prompt talk of invasion. We need a foreign policy that does not buy short-term safety at the expense of long-term security.

Alexis Martin

Los Angeles

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Given Hussein’s track record in human treachery, it is conceivable that he is planning a surprise attack on the U.S. He could have a weapon of mass destruction placed in the hands of a sleeper cell in the U.S. today.

It’s not a question of if but when Hussein will use such a weapon on humanity. I support any plan the Bush administration will use to force him from power and free the Iraqi people and humanity from an oppressive, evil dictator.

Rick Schreiner

Pasadena

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I never imagined it was possible to be more afraid of my own government than all those foreign regimes that hate us. Here’s the Bush team, preparing to plunge us (unilaterally) into a war with Iraq--with God knows what consequences in American lives, or how much hatred engendered in other Muslim countries. And Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, proposing TIPS, a plan to induce 10 million Americans to spy on the rest--shades of China and Nazi Germany. And Ashcroft arbitrarily holding hundreds of people incommunicado in American jails, exactly as all dreaded totalitarian regimes have done throughout history.

Where did our administration suddenly get all this power, and why aren’t ordinary Americans screaming to the heavens?

Maralys Wills

Santa Ana