Letters

Hussein, not oil, reason for war I found
Colleen Yorke’s column, “War with Iraq a waste of
resources, lives” (Jan. 14) to be misleading and uninformed.
Contrary to what was stated in the article, the reason for going to
war with Iraq is not because we are “running out of
oil.” Saddam Hussein is an aggressive dictator who has no
problem with murdering, torturing, and even committing genocide
against his own people. What do you think he would do to us given
the chance? The real reason why we will probably go to war with
Iraq is that Hussein represents a clear and present danger to the
United States and its interests. His troops continue to fire upon
allied forces patrolling the northern and southern “no
fly” zones almost every day. It has been proven that he funds
terrorism in Israel by sending money to the families of homicide
bombers. He has invaded neighboring countries in an effort to gain
dominance of the entire Middle East and yes, control one third of
the world’s oil reserves. The chief weapons inspector Hans
Blix stated Tuesday that there are many weapons which we knew
Saddam had before 1998 and cannot prove in 12,000 pages where they
have gone. The threat Saddam poses to the United States is worth
the cost of prevention. We have to face the hard reality that we
are not immune to terrorism and that we need to take steps to
prevent future disasters. Scott Jungwirth
Third-year, electrical engineering

Lavin Nicole Smith? With another successful
manipulation of the press this week, Steve Lavin has become the
Anna Nicole Smith of college basketball. He managed to get the
media and fans to stop and watch … well, what, exactly? Fans
certainly do not want to watch the product he puts on the floor.
This week proves that a Steve Lavin reality show is much more
entertaining to watch than the reality of UCLA basketball. Lavin
focused the attention on his job security as opposed to the job he
is hired to do. In helping cover this circus, the media fell for
something John Wooden has always warned against: “don’t
confuse activity with achievement.”Earl Jones
Los Angeles