“Iraq: paper tiger” the editorial page of the Sun Journal called it on Jan. 14. The editorial writer referred to an inquiry by a Washington Post reporter as to how much has been uncovered so far in the search for “weapons of mass destruction.”

It looks like the weapons never existed except in Saddam Hussein’s head. An extensive search by Mr. Blix and company was effective in denying Saddam these weapons. President Bush released Blix of this task and assigned a 400-member military team to take over. They too gave up. No weapons.

The question now is why have thousands of people (including U.S. soldiers) been needlessly killed and wounded and are still being killed and wounded?

About 40,000 U.S. soldiers have seen their enlistments extended indefinitely by the so-called “stop loss” rule. Bush appears to be using the military to attain his own goals, such as avenging his father, or maybe it’s a question of oil.

We have destroyed Iraq’s major cities and now we must rebuild them with billions of taxpayers’ dollars. Smart. I’ll wave the flag when the troops come home and Bush is no longer president.

Roger Jalbert, Lewiston