Bill Anderson’s response to my letter (Iraq victim of Hussein, not the world) Feb. 25, is riddled with half-truths and clichs worthy of Madeline Albright herself. Mr. Anderson’s lack of human compassion is equaled only by his ignorance of recent history. Here’s a quick lesson:In the 1980s the Ayatollah Khomeni, the man who called the United States the Great Satan on a daily basis, was public enemy No. 1. After Khomeni seized power in Iran and set up a fundamentalist Islamic regime, the United States encouraged Saddam Hussien to wage a long and devastating war against him in order to destablize Iran. Hussein was provided with military intelligence, and yes, the means to create chemical weapons, which we are trying to take away now. But you see, it was OK for Hussein to gas a bunch of Iranians in the name of U.S. interests, and no one was comparing him to Adolph Hitler then!

Mr. Anderson contends that Hussein is a special menace to international security because of his invasion of Kuwait. However, one year earlier America invaded Panama to arrest its president, Manual Noriega, violating the same international laws that Iraq violated a year later. Add to that these U.S. violations of international law and order:Invasion and occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and Grenada in 1983, a guerrilla war waged against Nicaragua with a private army of terrorists in the 1980s, bombing of Libya and Lebanon in the 1980s, etc. Despite this shameless hypocrisy, the United States maintains a superior moral stance to the rest of the world and thumbs its nose at the United Nations. Who elected America the world’s judge, jury and executioner?

Anderson also seems confused about the nature of the sanctions (oh, and by the way, Hitler did not provoke the Allied-imposed sanctions on Germany, they were applied after WWI, not WWII. Get your wars straight.) The sanctions that Iraq still suffers continue to deny it food, medicine and the ability to repair its shattered sewage and electrical systems, propagating the disease and famine that kill 105 children daily! Despite America’s bullying, and Saddam’s stubbornness, these innocents continue to die. The only way to end this is to start respecting Kofi Annan’s efforts and to stop putting our own selfish interests first!

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