In the SF Chron letters to the editor, 8/30:

Editor - U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin have called for the ouster of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Malaki, and he has responded that they are speaking "as if Iraq is one of their villages" ("Iraqi leader rips politicians urging him to vacate office," Aug. 27). "Iraq is a sovereign country," he says, "and we will not allow anyone to talk about it as if it belongs to this country or that."

The word sovereignty has a long history. It refers to where power and authority is located. Surely, al-Malaki must know that Iraqi sovereignty is not in Baghdad. The power is in Washington, and the authority doesn't really exist.

Al-Malaki doesn't appear to understand what this war is all about. America wants to control the oil, and is establishing permanent bases in Iraq to make sure that neither the Chinese nor the Russians can seize it. Al-Malaki is supposed to organize a government that can preserve order so American troops won't have to do it; and so that the fiction of Iraqi sovereignty can be maintained for public relations purposes. It won't work.

This war is a moral abomination and thousands of Iraqi and American lives have been sacrificed because of American ignorance, incompetence, corruption and hubris. It can only end badly.

MARSHALL WINDMILLER

Professor Emeritus, International Relations

San Francisco State University

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K