Letter: Bush must weigh cost of lives

Thursday, June 20, 2002 | 9:10 a.m.

Instead of making oblique references to a preemptive strike against Iraq, as he did at West Point recently, President Bush should heed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told him that a war against Saddam Hussein would be unwise.

According to the top military officials, an offensive in Iraq could endanger the lives of at least 200,000 American servicemen in bloody ground combat, and might prompt Hussein to use biological and chemical weapons to strengthen his hand.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff surely realize better than anyone that war is not only fought on a strategic battlefield, it also takes a human toll. Bush should ask himself whether ousting a weaker, and by some accounts more cooperative, Hussein is really worth thousands of U.S. and Iraqi lives and regional instability.

BERNARD DEUTSCHER

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