To the editor:

According to the Sunday New York Times, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this weekend suggested American leaders should be tried as war criminals for using “used uranium ordnance” in Iraq and using the atomic bomb many years ago. “Who in the world are you to accuse Iran of suspicious nuclear armed activity?” he said.

How dare he compare Iran’s evil wish for weapons of mass destruction to our thoughtful consideration of using the occasional nuclear bomb to defend democracy!

Granted we have the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world, and President Bush has no plans to reduce that deadly stockpile; but we would use them only for good causes. Granted we have fired some 120 tons of artillery shells in Iraq made with depleted but still radioactive uranium, but we certainly didn’t intend for shattered and powdered shell casings to contaminate playgrounds and such. Our president wants to develop “bunker buster” nuclear bombs but only to eliminate evil-doers such as, well, President Ahmadinejad and anyone else we don’t care for.

The world will be safe only when all nuclear weapons are in our hands – and those of dependable democracy-loving allies like Pakistan and Russia.

Joe Douglas,

Lawrenec