Forgetting Saddam

I read with surprise Peter Dula's selective critique of the war in Iraq ("The War in Iraq," December 3, 2004). Dula notes that H. Richard Niebuhr's ethical slogan was "What is going on?" Yet nowhere in his article does Dula mention "what went on" in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Dula describes the havoc wrought by car bombs in Baghdad, but not the atrocities committed by Hussein. This seems purposeful. Dula appears to think that Iraq would have been better off with Hussein in power. Coming from a country where a dictator ruled for decades, I find this ridiculous.

Dula also fails to provide any viable alternative to the war in Iraq other than UN sanctions, which we now know benefited the very people they were meant to discipline. Dula criticizes the editors of First Things for their "moral muteness in time of war." Failing to recognize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein is also a form of "moral muteness."

MIKE S. EZEATU

Waltham, Mass.

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