‘Most Americans strongly support Bush’s Iraq policy’
Stavros Lygeros’s statement that «It’s no coincidence that even within the USA, the number of people who think Bush is causing the greatest possible damage to American interests grows by the day» (Commentary, March 14) is misleading and helps further widen the misunderstanding between Americans and Europeans. Your readers should be aware that an unprecedented portion of the US population now supports Mr Bush’s policy on Iraq WITHOUT THE BACKING OF THE UNITED NATIONS. This is directly due to the most recent diplomatic events at the United Nations. An ABC News poll showed that 35 percent of Americans think it necessary to get UN authorization before taking military action against Iraq, while 56 percent say it is desirable but not necessary. A New York Times/CBS News poll shows that 55 percent would approve of taking military action against Iraq even without a second UN resolution. A FOX News poll conducted this week finds 71 percent of Americans support using US forces to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and 20 percent oppose. At this point, most Americans have lost faith in the United Nations, and France in particular, whose policy is to actively go against an ally who believes its national security is threatened. Should the Security Council be successful in pursuing an appeasement strategy with Iraq, then a war will most likely occur and encourage the United States to stay away from the United Nations in the future. In the end, I can assure you that Americans will not tolerate US foreign policy and its national security interests being vetoed by the United Nations, France or even Guinea for that matter. Therefore, I would not be surprised if the United States pulls out of the United Nations altogether in the not-too-distant future. I for one would support this action since the track record of the United Nations has been very poor in preventing violence and genocide against millions of unarmed civilians and is in need of serious reform. I am sure most Americans feel the same way as I do (as you can see from the latest polling data). On the other hand, it seems that most Europeans (in a time-honored tradition) have their heads in the sand! EVAN LAMBROS, Philadelphia, PA.
