Letters

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America needs to control the rich, oil-producing regions in the Middle East. And given the state of most European armies, the U.S. also needs to defend the interests of its allies and friends. Let us hope that a successful pre-emptive strike on Iraq will leave in its wake the preventive medicine of fighting corruption in the Middle East and will reduce radicalism there.
Stefan Collinet-Adler
Nancy, France

Why Go to War?

Don't people understand that an attack on Iraq would not have Saddam at one end of the street and the American military at the other with no one else involved [Iraq: Weapons Inspections, Sept. 30]? This would be a war involving millions of innocent people. Saddam would be safe and sound, while helpless Iraqis would experience the same horror that the victims of Sept. 11 did. Oil and politics are the factors that are deciding the fate of Iraq's people, not moral values. Where is our humanity? Look at the promises the U.S. made to Afghanistan before the war there. Afghan officials now claim there are not enough funds to build the promised infrastructure. Not enough funds? And the U.S. wants to start a new war? Is there something wrong with this picture?
Pavlik Stooshnoff
Vancouver

A lot of politicians and busybodies are describing bad scenarios of street fighting in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities and towns, claiming that Saddam's troops will fight to the last man and the last bullet. But many of Saddam's enemies inside Iraq are just itching to get back at him and will cheerfully clear the way for U.S. troops to walk in. I want President Bush to step in and liberate the Iraqi people from this monster. The U.S. will earn the gratitude and blessings of the Iraqis, just as it did from the Afghans.
Jehangir Medora
Toronto

Peace in the world will not be achieved by attacking Iraq. Peace will come when a nation like the U.S. understands that we are all part of the same human species and what happens to those in Rwanda or Zimbabwe or Iraq or India is as important as what happens to people in New York City.
Adam Hess
Cape Town

A Rankling Remark

Your item "Bush's Furor Over Der Fuhrer" [Notebook, Sept. 30] reported that President Bush "lost it when he heard that German Justice Minister Herta Daubler-Gmelin compared him to Hitler." As an American living in Germany, I was a little concerned about all the fuss created by Daubler-Gmelin's supposed remarks. What ever happened to free speech? From my President, the leader of the free world, I would expect a more intelligent and grown-up reaction.
Wayne A. Graves
Essen, Germany

Let Rosie Be Rosie

If Gruner & Jahr, publisher of Rosie, thinks it can profit from Rosie O'Donnell's name and ignore her views, it's living in the past [People, Sept. 30]. It obviously doesn't know the real Rosie. Her appeal is her honesty and straightforwardness, and this flap over editorial control of the magazine Rosie just makes those qualities all the more real to her fans. Go, Rosie!
Jade Walsh
Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Reaping the Whirlwind

In "Not In My Back Bay" on the off-shore wind farm proposed for the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Cod, Mass. [Science, Sept. 30], the typical shortsighted vision of corporate America is once more on display. The former CEO of Phelps Dodge Corp., a massive copper-mining company, is concerned because his view of the bay may be tarnished by the presence of an environmentally sound, renewable source of energy. And this comes from a man whose wealth was built in part on a nonrenewable resource, the extraction of which has ruined beautiful landscapes across the globe! It's clear to me why corporate America is filled with endless stories of corruption, greed and the sacrifice of the many for the needs of an elite few.
Jeff Franzmann
Winnipeg, Man.

I'd take a view of those graceful, nonpolluting windmills over that of a nature-threatening oil spill any day!
Suzanne Collins
New Harbor, Maine

Take It Back

You said that the actions of the two fans at Chicago's Comiskey Park who attacked a first-base coach were "a move rarely expected outside Yankee Stadium" [People, Sept. 23]. As a native New Yorker, I am tired of such gratuitous, negative references to New Yorkers, implying that violence, rowdiness or boorish behavior is exclusive to us. I am proud to be a New Yorker and a Yankee fan.
John Costanzo
New York City