To the editor:

If I were a young investigative reporter and wanted to investigate something meaningful, I would start by asking four questions:

1. Who had the oil contracts before our occupation of Iraq?

2. Who has them now?

3. What is their relationship to George W. and Dick Cheney?

4. And finally: Do the answers to any or all of these questions explain this administration’s desire to continue this lost cause?

According to recent polls, about 80 percent of the Iraqi citizens want us to set a time and get out. And 40 percent of the Iraqi citizens say it is morally acceptable to kill Americans, in uniform or out.

Is all this talk about democracy and defeating terrorists part of the smoke-and-mirrors campaign? If we had a real Congress instead of a bunch of rubber stamps, some of these questions would have been answered long ago.

E. Kent Hayes,

Lawrence