To: The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Date:  January 14, 2003
Subject: Patrolling the "no fly" zones in Iraq
Result: not printed

Dear Editor,

I don't see the rationale behind flying daily missions to patrol the no-fly zones in Iraq. I'm not sure how many planes we fly each day, but I guess there are quite a few, each costing thousands of dollars per hour to operate, if I'm not mistaken.

Why can't we just monitor the area with radar and satellites? Then if an Iraqi plane does a no-no and crosses the line, we can go intercept them.

I could see where our policy here might be considered by others to be just another way for the United States to assert itself to show that, by golly, we're the U.S., and you better watch out.

It's the same way with North Korea. We should just humor them and say, okay, we'll talk with you about your nuclear program, as they have asked. We're the big guys. We should be magnanimous in that position. But everything has to be just the way we say, or we're not going to play.

As an American citizen who is concerned for my country and how it lives in the world, and how the rest of the world perceives it, I wish we could go a little easier.

Thank you, John Vehon

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