Letter: What will attack on Iraqi people accomplish?

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.

With military action in Iraq seemingly imminent, the thought of yet another episode of pointless destruction and carnage is discouraging. One can readily imagine scenes of areas of Baghdad reduced to rubble, body bags stacked like cord wood and accounts of the demise of Saddam Hussein and his chief henchmen, not to mention the scores of innocent lives -- to be described as collateral damage -- and very likely the deaths of U.S. servicemen ordered to participate in this grand-scale fiasco. What will have been accomplished?

It should be apparent by now that many countries will be questioning the judgment of the Bush administration in this regard. The absence of any solid proof of a major threat to world peace or security by the Iraqi government may long show how irrational and unnecessary such an attack will have been. Will this serve merely as a reminder of the brutality of American military might, as our president continues to talk of "evil empires," trying to draw a distinction between ourselves and those cast in the role of enemies?

It is very frustrating to note that we have apparently learned nothing since our involvement in Vietnam. The voices protesting this action, both at home and abroad, are being ignored. It is doubtful that the Bush administration will ever acknowledge anything but a self- congratulatory sense of victory for having blown up a relatively defenseless foreign nation.

ERIC STEFIK