the war: ridiculous claims

[cellio]

I've heard a lot of people in the last few days arguing that we're attacking Iraq at Israel's bidding. This is ridiculous for a number of reasons, including the fact that no ally has that much control over US foreign policy, but that's not what I focused on in this letter.

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Editor,

If the US had really gone to war on Israel's behalf, as some of your letter-writers have suggested, then we would not be bombing Baghdad. We would be bombing Ramallah and Gaza. This war actually works AGAINST Israel's interests, becuase the US is expending all of its resources, military and diplomatic, going after a second-order threat instead of dealing with known terrorists with known supplies of weapons. From Israel's point of view, how smart is that?

Those who would place the blame for initiating this war beyond Washington have not made their case.

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Comments

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Wow. I had not heard that claim, though I agree that it is ridiculous.

Good letter. I hope they print it.

[cellio]

I've seen it in several letters to the editor in the paper, and that's probably the closest indicator of "average guy on the street" opinion I've got. (Polls are only meaningful if they disclose exact questions and polling techniques, which they rarely do. Otherwise, you have to assume that it was spun in the direction the pollster wanted.) I've also seen a number of folks on the net put forth this view.

I wonder if they'll print it. The Post-Gazette surely wouldn't, but I'm talking about the Trib. We'll see. (They haven't called to confirm authorship yet.)