Did the Case for War Hold Up?

The Opinion Pages featured in The New York Times

To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman (column, April 27) doesn't mention that past United States support was one of the factors that directly or indirectly contributed to the sustenance of Saddam Hussein's brutal war machinery.

Our liberation of Iraq on moral grounds sounds hollow because we brought down the same monster we had helped sustain in the first place.

SHANKAR CHAUDHURI

Glen Ridge, N.J., April 27, 2003