How will bombing Iraq disarm it?

If the Bush administration really wants to disarm Iraq, exactly how would that be expedited by a U.S. invasion and bombing campaign?

If highly trained and experienced U.N. inspectors cannot locate and identify weapons of mass destruction, can we expect American soldiers to find them?

Saddam may have weapons, but an invasion would significantly lower the chances of ever finding them. Currently, inspectors can look for them unimpeded, in any location, any time they like. After an invasion, there will be Iraqi snipers and booby traps; miles and miles of rubble and damaged roads; a demolished communications and energy infrastructure, destroyed records; and far less cooperation from Iraqis who know anything about hidden WMD.

An invasion would delay for years the search for WMD and their eventual destruction. Though the Iraqis are not cooperating as actively as they should, bombing will not improve the situation.

As France suggested, more inspectors would help, both to look for weapons and to monitor sites that have already been inspected.

Chief nuclear inspector Mohamed Al Baradei has asked for about a year. Give the inspections time to disarm Iraq without war.

Brodie Lockard
Kailua

Saddam brings back bad memories

As the U.S. government moves closer to a decision on war with Saddam Hussein, I hear echoes from the past -- Europe and America in the 1930s. The carnage of World War I had resulted in almost an obsession in Europe to prevent further war. The leaders of Britain and France were so vehement in avoiding another war they ignored the major threat to European peace -- Adolf Hitler. They believed Herr Hitler was a man they could deal or negotiate with. Any revelations and signs of the true nature of Hitler were either ignored or downplayed -- the first concentration camps in Germany, the anti-Semitic laws, the oppression of political opposition and the secret build-up of the German armed forces, among other factors.

I see echoes of those perilous times in our present. There are political leaders in America and Europe who believe or want to believe Saddam Hussein can be negotiated with. They ignore his dictatorship; the torture chambers; the use of mustard gas on Iraqi Kurds; the invasion of Iran; the lies and deception to hide his program to create nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; and many other signs of his true character.

Look at this man's past record and past actions. As in the Europe of the 1930s, this mirage of peace is just delaying the inevitable military showdown with the so-called modern Saladin who will drive the West and Israel out of the Middle East.

Theodore Taba

Why is Hawaii ignoring high alert status?

How is it that our governor has not read the handwriting on the wall? All the federally controlled areas have upgraded their alert status, even as far as checking under vehicles entering military reservations with mirrors looking for explosives. Yet the state of Hawaii hasn't raised its alert status. Seems like the attitude here is, "No enemy would dare to bomb Hawaii, and end our confusion." I dearly pray that this would be true.

Perhaps we should pray that God doesn't decide to commence with Armageddon. Wouldn't that be a blast to the non-believers?

Curtis R. Rodrigues
Kaneohe

Coble should resign from leadership post

I am an American of Japanese descent and a former internee of the Minidoka, Idaho, detention camp. My family and I suffered the effects of the kind of bigoted thinking demonstrated by Rep. Howard Coble, the U.S. congressman from North Carolina who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

I am chagrined that a person of such faulty reasoning and judgment should not only be a member of our national governing body, but that he should be in a position of leadership on the very issues that are affected by his bigotry.

Coble is clearly a man of expediency rather than principle. He would incarcerate whole populations on the risk that a few may be "intent on doing us harm" (an opinion proven to be false). Or, in a facile turnabout, he would single out whole populations and incarcerate them for their "own protection" rather than employing other means to safeguard the community at large from extremists of any sort.

I call that "lowest common denominator" thinking. A person so unnuanced and expedient in his mental process lacks the sensitivity required to balance personal freedoms against the need for national security. Such a person is a dangerous leader for the Judicial Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

I submit that Rep. Coble should be removed from his chairmanship -- for his lack of principle and his profound ignorance (or disregard) of constitutionality, as much as for his bigotry.

Marcia Sakamoto-Wong

Park's beauty spoiled by unsanitary habits

I have been enjoying the Ala Moana Beach Park for more than 60 years, and I would like to commend Mayor Harris and his maintenance staff for doing such an outstanding job of keeping the grass green and the park beautiful.

On the weekends, the park is full of families and children who are enjoying the benefits of the park facilities. Unfortunately, there's a down side and that is the influx of the less fortunate who have taken up residence in the park and along the wall by the beach. I believe they have violated the aloha spirit when they relieve themselves right along the wall and we have to live with the offensive odor. I find this abuse of the park unacceptable.

I hope the mayor continues with his efforts to do the right things in the spirit of aloha.

Jimmy Pflueger

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