Belligerence adds resistance to U.S. by the Iraqis

To the editor:

Bush's reticence to cede full political and economic control in Iraq to the United Nations contradicts the stated goal of building democracy. It has also cost the lives of military personnel and billions in tax dollars.

Due to our previous support of Saddam Hussein, our leaving the Shiite uprising in the lurch after the first Gulf War, and our push for brutal sanctions throughout the 1990s, the United States is viewed with considerable skepticism by most Iraqis.

The United Nations, while far from perfect, is more likely to stabilize the country, reduce casualties and birth some form of representative government.

The administration has clung to control of the contracts for rebuilding Iraq, control of the oil and control of the quality of government and economy that will supposedly emerge from the current chaos.

Far from facilitating such a government, however, this belligerence has strengthened the resistance, created a time for the fomenting of ethnic tension, and created more ill will toward and danger for the United States at every level. Whatever the reasons for going to war, those recently dying in Iraq have been doing so in the pursuit of an economic agenda designed to first benefit U.S.-based corporations.

If this were not the case, if the goal really were democracy, Bush would have taken the next logical step of relinquishing full control to the United Nations months ago.

Is the control of oil an adequate reason to shed American blood?

ROBERT POLACK

Cape Girardeau