LETTERS.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)

Doing It For The Oil

From "Double Game" (Editorial, Jan. 17), it sounds like Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is unfamiliar with where our bases are in the Middle East. He claims that the U.S. troops should leave Saudi Arabia if they don't want us there. Then he says: "We need a base in that region, but it seems to me we should find a place that is more hospitable."

We have a base in Bahrain just a few miles across the Gulf from the one in Saudia Arabia. It has been there since the Nixon administration. It was used extensively during the Gulf War. Most congressmen know zip about the Middle East, other than protecting imperial Israel from the surrounding countries.

My husband and I lived in Bahrain for five years, and we've seen how some of the U.S. troops act in host countries, vomiting out of taxis from too much alcohol and carrying on like adolescents. I'm sure many other countries would not appreciate this type of Western behavior, including Israel. (Since we're on such friendly terms with Israel, why don't we set up a base there?)

Of course, Middle Eastern countries see things differently than we do. Under the Clinton administration, we bombed, many times mistakenly, other countries. We continued to support the Israeli takeover of Palestine and the genocide of the Palestinians. Middle Eastern countries have stood by and watched people in Iraq die as our economic sanctions punish that country for their leader, one we could have easily taken out 10 years ago.

Now there's talk of bombing Iraq, Iran, Syria and others. These people are not our enemies; who are we doing this for? None of these countries threatens us. We need their oil, and that's the end of it.

Rachel Sanders, Baltimore