Questioning US Policy in Iraq

In his Opinion page article "The Real Iraq Scandal," June 3, the author correctly faults "the fawning incompetence of US diplomacy toward Baghdad in the months and days prior to the invasion of Kuwait." However, he too readily condones United States policy toward Iraq in the years before that period, both during and after the Iran-Iraq war.

It wasn't until the invasion of Kuwait that President Bush likened Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler. George Bush surely knew what Saddam was like long before then.

Yes, back the troops, but sack the commander in chief who as president sent them into a battle that astute leadership might have averted. Almost 150 American war dead, albeit a low casualty rate, was a high price to pay for that flawed diplomacy. David J. Steinberg, Alexandria, Va.

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