The truth is gradually coming out about the intent of President Bush and his administration to attack Iraq early on, and to use uncritically any information that conceivably could justify such a move.

Early on, the general media accepted the administration’s arguments without questioning; however, due to the grace of the openness of our society, the truth usually will find a way of surfacing, albeit, sometimes well after the fact.

We not only have as yet to see an expression of contrition from any of the major players regarding their use of faulty information to justify the attack, but not even an indication that they are concerned that the intelligence community was so far off base. Obviously this should be a concern for all of us, especially since they also fumbled the ball regarding Sept. 11.

For the administration to state that we are safer with the removal of Saddam Hussein is an exercise in fantasy. He had no weapons of mass destruction, his program for developing those was in disarray, and he had a military that was second rate at best.

What has happened is that we have sacrificed over 500 young people, with more to come, so that Bush can strut around playing at being our savior.

John Pehek, Leeds