The Sunday paper had a nice history of Iraq (April 6). It was all pretty accurate until that part where Saddam steps into the picture.

The paper reported that he had been elected president, and this is true. Saddam had been vice president, organized a military coup, arrested the president, imprisoned him, executed him and assumed the presidency. Saddam then held public elections and somehow won.

Who in Iraq would go up against someone who took power the way Saddam did?

Another part of Iraqi history not mentioned was the 100,000 northern Kurds killed by his regime. This was done the old fashioned way, door-to-door assassinations of people targeted because of their ethnicity. This was purely racial genocide, more than likely a result of the Kurds siding with Shiite Muslim extremists in their failed attempt to break away from Iraq.

Presently unfolding Iraqi history shows more of the same. From dressing Iraqi civilians in U.S. uniforms, gunning them down, removing the uniforms and blaming the coalition for the killings, to Iraqi militia men using children for shields. This is a regime built on murder, fear and cowardice.

Like it or not, Sept. 11 changed the way this country handles Islamic terrorism and the Islamic jihad fear factory has proven to be more propaganda than anything else.

No one has to support this war, and everyone does have the right to express our opinion.

My opinion is: what part of 100 percent don’t you understand?

Peter J. Michaud, Lewiston