To the editor:

I am very saddened by the tragic London bombings, but knowing that 23,000 to 100,000 (counting them is not allowed) Iraqi citizens have been killed, this violent retaliation is not surprising. President Bush has often said, “We fight the terrorists in Iraq so we don’t have to fight ’em here,” while Iraq becomes a recruitment and training ground for terrorists, and the population endures terrible suffering.

Almost 2,000 U.S. and coalition men and women also have died in this war, which was unnecessary and based on faulty information. This poorly planned folly in Iraq, with the horrific carnage of Fallujah, the depleted uranium munitions that spread radioactive dust when they explode, and the continuing chaos, corruption and violence is creating many new enemies, while people responsible for this mess are awarded medals and billion-dollar contracts.

The people who began this war have a lot of blood on their hands.

We need new leaders who understand that declaring “war on terror” and bombing people is like fighting fire with gasoline. Martin Luther King said, “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. : Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”

Malika Lyon,

Lawrence