Canceling Egypt’s $7-Billion Defense Debt

The spectacle of the allegedly richest nation in the world going hat-in-hand to world capitals to beg financial support for our latest military adventure is revolting. Worse, President Bush casts Americans as the Hessians of our time. Young American lives are put at risk and it’s OK so long as London, Paris, Bonn and Tokyo chip in a few billion!

The United States has embarked upon a massive armed intervention with no agreed-upon goals, no national purpose other than protecting oil interests, no certain plan and no hint of how to eventually extricate ourselves other than the unacceptable prospect of an all-out war that will slaughter thousands and destroy the very petroleum interests we hold so dear, or the unrealistic hope that Saddam Hussein will somehow disappear from the scene.

Meanwhile, our faltering economy, the budget mess and attention to the needs of the American people are swept away in the excitement of still another war. How nice for the Administration and Congress!

When do we stop playing International Cop? How many Vietnams will it take for the United States to get it into its thick imperial head that we will continue to lose our world position and alienate all nations, friend and foe alike, so long as we insist upon force as the primary tool of our foreign policy?

LEE HAHN

Laguna Hills