A Slow Start in the Victors’ Search for Iraqi Tools of Mass Destruction

I am pleased to see “Concern Grows Over Weapons Hunt Setbacks” (April 27) and other recent articles regarding the unfound weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Did we bomb the heck out of this poor country with no legitimate cause, or did we force Saddam Hussein’s regime to move these weapons out of Iraq and into the hands of terrorists and arms traffickers? Either way, our actions show bad judgment, shortsightedness and hubris.

Benita Bike

Shadow Hills

*

If I had 12 years to hide nuclear weapons (the size of basketballs), chemical weapons (hidden in soft drink bottles) or biological weapons (sealed inside business envelopes) in Iraq (an area the size of California), U.N. inspectors would not have enough lifetimes to find them -- yet they would still exist.

It’s interesting that some people criticize President Bush for not finding those weapons of mass destruction in a few days and doubting that they existed. We can’t find Osama bin Laden or Hussein (both of whom are considerably larger than the weapons), but we have no doubt that they exist and that they are extremely dangerous to us.

Dean S. Engelhardt

Covina

*

Re “Lack of Data Slowing Cluster Bomb Cleanup,” April 27:

How is it that the world’s only superpower, in order to defeat a small, impoverished nation, needs to drop cluster bombs in urban areas where children pick up the many unexploded bomblets, thinking they are toys?

How is it that Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens says it is not the military’s responsibility to help groups such as the Mines Advisory Group with the cleanup? It makes me ashamed to be an American.

Constance Pencall

Whittier