To the editor:

I am appalled by the way our country, under the Bush administration, is behaving in its quest to line up “allies” on the U.N. Security Council (J-W, Monday). Warning poor nations that have benefited from our financial assistance they will risk “paying a heavy price” if they don’t vote with the United States for a war with Iraq is unconscionable.

We Americans pride ourselves on our generosity and charity — the noble, selfless act of helping others in need. It shames me that we now ask those recipients for their Security Council vote in return! This behavior casts our nation more as a bullying mobster than a benevolent leader.

At the same time, Bush arrogantly dismisses the antiwar protests by millions of people around the world as “irrelevant” (J-W, Feb. 19). He marvels that democracy allows people to “express their opinions,” while flagrantly ignoring the “opinion” of millions, including fellow U.S. citizens.

Because Congress signed away our say in this debate last October, President Bush can legally, if not morally, ignore our protests. But there are about 5.7 billion people besides us in this world. And many of those are close enough to Iraq and other terrorist hotbeds to suffer the brunt of all-out war in that region. The “opinions” of these people should have weight, perhaps even more than ours. If we cannot get the sincere support of other nations — without coercion — then we’ve no business thrusting this war on the world.

Sharon Dewey,

Lawrence