A military victory in Iraq is likely to weaken the U.S. in several ways:

• Further economic stagnation as a result of pilfering $74.6 billion from Social Security and adding that to a projected $304 billion deficit.

• Both inflation and interest rates will rise with a consequent decrease in business investment and a subsequent increase in unemployment.

• Thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, plus however many coalition and Iraqi soldiers.

• Internecine conflict, which will inevitably follow the war, with the installation of a new Iraqi government.

Beyond those four points and of greater interest is how this war is going to affect our global relationships.

Protests have been staged on every continent, vilifying our pre-emptive strike on Iraq. This incursion would not have taken place but for the adoption of the “Bush Doctrine,” which states: Do harm to others before they do harm to you.

No doubt other countries understand that doctrine and may themselves use it to justify their own incursions.

Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. That’s a given. What’s uncertain is whether a direct link exists between Saddam’s regime and al-Queda terrorists.

To many U.N. Security Council members and a significant portion of the world, Colin Powell’s presentation in February failed to convince.

No doubt this war will have a destabilizing effect, here and abroad, on economic, fiscal, trade and military policies in the future. The foundations upon which many countries were built may soon crack.

Robert Hamel, Livermore Falls