To the editor:

Right wing ideologues seem unable to grasp that the fundamental issue raised by critics of the Iraq war is not whether Saddam Hussein deserved to be deposed (yes, many years ago), but whether President Bush has been honest about the reasons for this particular war.

The self-defense rationales, based on shaky intelligence, turned out to be false. No weapons of mass destruction, nuclear programs or connections to al-Qaida. People are questioning the liberation rationale because of this administration’s poor planning for securing the peace and returning control back the Iraqi people. Our excellent troops and innocent Iraqi citizens are paying the price for what I believe is the Republican leadership’s incompetence.

Even before 9-11, the radical right had ambitions for projecting U.S. power into the Middle East. Iraq was a prime candidate. Some Republicans now are arguing that the United States and U.S. corporations are entitled to the spoils of war to justify the blood spilled and the billions spent. Justifications for this war are creeping again; becoming less about self-defense and selfless liberation (very American values) and more about self-interested expansion of power and economic control (the values of the radical right and Halliburton). The American people can see the facts don’t match Republican rhetoric; common sense tells them there are some less than altruistic motivations behind this war that are not being mentioned. What is truly sad is if Republican leaders have betrayed the trust of the American people by not being honest from the beginning.

Mark Stone,

Lawrence