Remaking the War Into a Fight Against Fascism

Re “The Left’s Man in the New Iraq,” Commentary, July 7: In an astounding Orwellian statement of modern historical revisionism, Paul Berman tells readers that the war in Iraq has always been a war against fascism. What planet has Berman been on that last two years? This war has always been about weapons of mass destruction and nothing more. How do I and other Americans know this? Because national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney, President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell told us over and over again that the United States needed to invade Iraq in an act of preemption to stop Iraq from attacking the United States with WMD.

Now, like an elementary school student changing his reasons for failing to complete his homework, Berman invents yet another far-fetched reason to justify the terrible costly and murderous invasion of Iraq. Remember “shock and awe,” Mr. Berman? Remember the doctrine of “preemption”? Nowhere was “fascism” mentioned as our rationalization for this war.

Please, Mr. Berman, you and the administration should get one story and stick with it, and you should stop the convoluted excuses for Bush’s failed policy in Iraq. The administration has proved itself quite adept at inventing its own pathetically contradictory justifications.

Thomas J. Brayton

Long Beach

Berman tells us that the war in Iraq is “a liberation war for democratic freedom -- even a left-wing war.” Sounds good. But do we mean it? Can anyone believe the United States would simply stand by if the Iraqis (in accord with polls showing that many despise us) elect strongly anti-American rulers who legally do any or all of the following: Tell us to get out, abandoning the permanent military bases we have spent billions to build; enact some modified variation of Sharia, denying Western-style rights to women; decide to nationalize oil production; allocate a fixed percentage of oil income to support Palestinians in their battle to evict Israeli occupiers.

Richard E. Tuttle

Mokelumne Hill, Calif.