Richard R. Gerken

To the editor,

Does Mr. Leon Albushies think that evil exists in this world? According to him, America (read George W. Bush) is responsible for the “murder of hundreds-of-thousands of innocent Iraqi people.” So Bush is responsible for the killing of soldiers and civilians in an illegal and morally unjustified war and Saddam Hussein is a saint or martyr?

Mr. Albushies, the UN passed 14 resolutions requiring Hussein to disarm and stop trying to develop weapons of mass destruction over 12 years, which he ignored and continually obstructed and prohibited UN inspectors from validating. After the invasion by the U.S. and allies to enforce the UN resolutions (which Congress approved), Saddam Hussein’s civilian victims were recovered from mass graves and pictorial evidence of torture and mutilation was uncovered. Has Mr. Albushies forgotten about the torture, killings and beheadings of innocent civilians (including westerners) by armed thugs and terrorists within Iraq?

I don’t know whether Mr. Albushies recalls WW II, Korea and Vietnam, but in war people get killed and that includes civilians. In WW II alone, thousands of civilians died in bombings of London during the Blitz and later German cities, not to mention Japan and the A-bombs. That is an unfortunate by-product of war and the struggle against evil.

It is time to stop demonizing America in general and George Bush in particular for trying to keep our families safe in a post 9/11 world. America’ invasion of Iraq was in support of freedom and choice for the Iraqi people. How does that compare to Russia’s recent invasion of Georgia and the killing of innocent civilians in that country? Where is Mr. Albushies’ outrage at this blatantly aggressive violation of national sovereignty?

Richard R. Gerken

Meredith