IF ROLES WERE REVERSED, WE WOULDN'T SEE WAR AS JUSTIFIED

*Editor, the Tribune:* I'm writing about the thoughtful Open Column by
Henry Liu published Dec. 1: "War in Iraq is not justified because Bush
instigated it."

I'd like to add that none of bombs we have dropped on Iraq hit Saddam
Hussein. Instead, our bombs and bullets have killed and maimed Iraqi men,
women, children and babies who have done us no harm.

To most Muslims, the only legitimate laws are made by God. The Iraqi
citizens did not ask for and do not want our form of "democracy." How would
we react if another country invaded the United States and attempted to
install its form of government and its religious values upon us? Would our
attitude change if the invaders called themselves "liberators"? I don't
think so.

How would we react if another country invaded the United States and sprayed
our tobacco fields with poisons because our tobacco products were killing
some of that country's citizens?

Yet this is exactly what we are doing to the Colombian cocaine fields.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.