To the editor:

The hand-wringing over the Bush administration (don’t wince when you read that) and whether it went through the many, many hoops and halters before entering Iraq – with a coalition of countries larger than the ones that entered Kosovo and Somalia – are unwarranted and done so in a cloud of self-prescribed ignorance on the part of Daniel Patrick Schamle in his May 14 letter to the editor.

“Oil for food” was abused by many to the tune of $10.1 billion in illegal revenue from which the Iraqi people never saw benefit. Saddam Hussein was an evil, corrupt, mass-murdering dictator who needed to be displaced regardless of what happened on 9/11. He raped and pillaged his own people far too long while the United Nations and the international community (France, Germany and Russia, who benefited from illegal kickbacks through oil-for-food, included) stood by and shook their fingers in his general direction saying, “Now don’t you do that again Mr. Hussein, or else we’ll pass another unenforceable and impotent resolution.”

Taking back this world from the terrorists who threaten free and just people everywhere requires strong wills, strong arms and a relentlessness that obviously the left in this country do not possess. It is time for them to stand aside and let the good side prevail and stop hampering our soldiers and those who have the responsibility to put them in harm’s way. It is difficult enough a task without their meddlesome intrusions.

Kristopher Aaron Nelson,

Lawrence