Dear Editor,
The State of the Union address did not give answers to the burning questions related to the invasion of Iraq that are needed to convince a doubting world of the morality and beneficence of this seemingly inevitable war.
No new, credible evidence was lent to the charges of cooperation between al-Qaeda and Iraq who are representatives of two opposing ideologies that have been adversaries since the breakup of colonialism in the Middle East.
The President alluded to humanitarian goals: the end of torture and repression in Iraq, and the beginning of democracy in West Asia. The purity of these motives, however, is not substantiated by past evidence.
Nearly every regime supported by American interest in this region has been despotic, cruel, and repressive.
From the Shah of Iran to the U.S. corporate-backed Saudi monarchy, from the coerced atheism of Turkish politics to Saddam Hussein himself, Ameri-can involvement has produced realities that contradict American ideals.
As America’s ally in the 1980s, Iraq boasted the most modernized society in the Middle East. Medicine was available to nearly all citizens while infant mortality rates and literacy rates were beginning to approach Western standards.
The Gulf War and the economic sanctions that followed have changed Iraq into a hellhole of poverty, ignorance, revolution and suppression.
What are the true motives of our leaders? What drives their desire to kill innocent Iraqi civilians and conscripted Iraqi soldiers?
Iraq is both strategically important and rich. If Iraq were friendly to the United States, then Iran would be surrounded by enemies.
From this vantage point, the U.S. could launch an even more destructive war in Persia; from Bush’s rhetoric, this is not at all out of the question.
Since the discovery of oil in the Arabian Peninsula and the states that border it, U.S. petroleum interests have been involved in the complex politics of this region. American economic domination of the world will be nearly complete if all goes smoothly in Iraq.
Our leaders know this and are working to exert supreme control over the oil markets of the entire world by the conquest of one country. This should not be allowed to come to pass quietly.
Sam Berry

Author