Letter: War protesters have legitimate points to make

Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | 8:47 a.m.

The Sun's March 25 editorial, "Iraq war protesters are wrong," would have been better directed at those who choose to discourage free speech by calling all protesters communists, or against the troops, or pro-Saddam.

There is a legitimate need to talk about the other side of the argument as the media has almost universally shown the administration side.

There is a strong case for saying that Bush has made the troops less safe because of his failure in diplomacy, resulting in fewer troops being available from what could have been a large coalition, failure to convince Turkey to use its land for a northern front and the harsh rhetoric of the administration that has resulted in many in Iraq and the world feeling that we are an occupying force out for the oil and controlling the region for our own purposes.

This last impression is reinforced by the word that the administration is already making arrangements to have its corporate friends share in the lucrative oil reserves and reconstruction contracts.

There are virtually no incidents in which the peace activists have shown anything other than support for the troops. It is the administration with which they have legitimate arguments. The overseas protesters have quite consistently said that they support the American people but resent the rhetoric and attitude of the administration.

The media (including your paper) have done a poor job of presenting the view that foreigners have of us and the reasons for it.

As more and more lives are lost and our failures overseas make the war on terrorism less effective, it is going to reinforce the desirability of using inspections (which were not perfect but were getting results with no loss of life).

ROGER D. CHRISTENSEN

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