In Chris Routhe’s letter, “Dayton is wrong on Iraq” (Oct. 8), he epitomizes the irrational warmongering right wing Republican who will bend any truth and use any pretext to bomb a country or discredit any less aggressive political-social stance. First, Routhe states that the President George W. Bush administration should not have to seek approval of Congress or the international community for attacking Iraq because Clinton did not do so when bombing Sudan, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. He does not mention that Clinton did not get approval because he did not send troops to go to war, which is what Bush wants to do and for which approval of Congress is required. Bush can still bomb Iraq all he wants and that is what U.S. and British forces regularly do. As for Yugoslavia, Clinton made sure that he had tacit world approval and all NATO members participated, unlike the current situation where NATO members have expressed extreme concern.

Then, Routhe condemns the slogan, “Violence solves nothing” and points out that Saddam Hussein has violated U.N. resolutions for 11 years. Here is a newsflash for those of you who don’t know: Israel has been violating U.N. resolutions for

over 30 years and has been using violence against a civilian population with U.S. taxpayers’ money.

Routhe moves on to criticize Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., for stating the fact that any

threat Hussein poses is not imminent. If we have information now that tells us Hussein will not have nuclear weapons for at least one to five years, why won’t we have information in six months or a year about how advanced Iraq’s nuclear program is, especially if we are able to get another inspection team full of spies into the country?

If we act pre-emptively now, what problems will we cause that could easily be avoided by patient diligence with the world on our side? Right-wing warmongering Republicans will not have the answers to lead America into a safe and prosperous future if they keep on feeding people the same old us-vs.-them- or it’s-the-end-of-the-world-fears. On election day, American voters everywhere should say “enough.” We will not fight your wars at the expense of human decency.