You Can’t Put a Price on Right and Wrong

I hope Erwin Chemerinsky checks out his facts better when he teaches at Duke Law School than he did for his Sept. 26 commentary, “We Might Get More Bang With Our Bucks.� President Kennedy was ready with forces to back up his other efforts to get the missiles out of Cuba. I know; I was one of the many thousands of military personnel on alert, and I was just off the coast of Cuba ready to take part in a landing on the beaches.

Saddam Hussein is into power, not money; he has already bled Iraq’s treasury for many billions, I’m sure. Do we want to set the example that tyrants can do what they want and we will punish them by buying them out? That’s smart--and will really be a deterrent to the next tyrant in the world. Even if the scientists left, what about the weapons Iraq already has? Cost is not the only consideration when facing people like Hussein. Why do “peace at any price-niks� persist in their pipe dreams?

Ted Whittlinger

Torrance

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At last, someone says something rational and sensible about the possible Iraq war. Chemerinsky proposes just a few of the cheaper, less destructive and more creative possible responses to Hussein--well beyond the limited imagination demonstrated to date by our leaders.

Marcia J. Bates

Van Nuys