Saddam Hussein

Re your Aug. 14 editorial, “Perilous Weakness on Iraq”: In chastising Saddam Hussein for not showing U.N. inspectors “everything they wanted to see” you forget one thing--any attempt to fully lift sanctions with Saddam in power will almost certainly be vetoed by the U.S., whether or not the inspectors complete their business.

Knowing this, who can blame Hussein for trying to end the sanctions in another way? To this end the Iraqi leader creates crisis after crisis, methodically focusing international attention on the effects of sanctions while simultaneously increasing frustration and fatigue here at home.

For the Clinton administration there should be many options available, but having made Hussein into a evil monster (to justify a war) we’re stuck with almost no room for strategic maneuver.

Thus our “perilous weakness on Iraq” is not present action or inaction but our original position of unyielding confrontation with a leader who is both skilled and determined. We are “in a box,” not Iraq.

MARK GERY, Santa Ana