This letter is in response to the April 23 column, “Stay in Iraq to stay the course.”

First, the Bush administration kicked the weapons inspectors out claiming “time had run out,” then they said we need “more time” to find weapons of mass destruction. Right-wing rationalizations and manipulative justifications like this article in hindsight are beyond ironic; they are absurd.

Dr. Kay told Reuters he thought Iraq had illicit weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but that by a combination of U.N. inspections and Iraq’s own decisions, “it got rid of them.”

He further said it “is correct” to say Iraq does not have any large stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons in the country.

He has added that no evidence of any chemical or biological weapons have been found in Iraq.

Iraq did not use illicit weapons in the 1991 Gulf War.

The United States did — 900 tons-plus of depleted uranium, fuel air explosives, super bombs and cluster bombs with civilians and civilian facilities the “direct object of attack.”

The United States claimed to destroy 80 percent of Iraq’s military armor. It dropped 88,500 tons of explosives — seven and a half Hiroshimas — on the country in 42 days. Iraq was essentially defenseless.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians perished. The United States reported 157 casualties, one-third from friendly fire, the remainder non combat.

U.N. inspectors, during more than six years of highly intrusive physical inspections, found and destroyed 90 percent of the materials required to manufacture nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

U.N. sanctions imposed August 6, 1990 had caused the deaths of 567,000 children under age 5 by October 1996, the U.N. FAO reported.

Twenty four percent of the infants born live in Iraq in 2002 had a dangerously low birth weight below two kilos, symbolizing the condition of the whole population.

In March 2003, Iraq was incapable of carrying out a threat against the United States., or any other country, and would have been pulverized by U.S. forces in place in the Gulf had it tried.

The United States possesses more of each of these impermissible weapons than all other nations combined and infinitely greater capacity for their delivery anywhere on earth within hours. Meanwhile, the United States increases its military expenditures, which already exceed those of all other nations on earth combined, and its technology, which is exponentially more dangerous.

More than 40,000 defenseless people, including women and children, in Iraq have been killed by U.S. violence since the latest aggression began in earnest in March 2003, starting with its celebrated, high tech, terrorist “Shock and Awe” and continuing until now with 25 or more U.S. raids daily causing mounting deaths and injuries.

We need political leaders who are willing to lead the world in disarmament and nonviolence, rather than those who prefer to lead it in overall arms acquisition, aggression and the profiteering of the military-industrial complex.

Paul Goodman

Alumnus

Lake City