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PRESCRIPTION FOR A 'COOL CITY'  - ACCOUNTABILITY

Dear  Mr. Martin,

Amen to our Governor who hopes that our young folks will invest
their education in jobs in Saginaw; and yes, tis' a COOL IDEA, but:

All of our citizens are not COOL about raising taxes or aiding our city bus
system with a special tax when our local media publishes a rundown of
mismanagement and unaccounted spending and a school system that is losing
federal dollars.

Years ago the City of Saginaw put out a financial statement every year in
the form of a calendar so citizens knew where our tax dollars were being
used.

It would be COOL to once again require ALL entities using tax dollars to
publish financial statements and enlighten the citizens - maybe once again
we can say, WE ARE SAGINAW!

Cliff James
Saginaw

JAMES BAKER REVISITED

Dear Mr. Martin,

Thank you for the excellent article, James Baker III Helped Finance
Saddam, appearing in the Jan. 22-Feb. 4 issue of The Review.  The American
public needs and deserves many reminders of the history of U.S/Iraq
relations in order to decipher and counter the Bush Administration
propaganda and lies the mainstream media gladly feeds us almost daily.

Your article is yet another illustration of why the U.S. is complicit in
the destruction of over two million Iraqi lives during the past 25 years.
(1 million as a result of U.S. support for the Iran/Iraq war and another
1.5 million as a result of the 'Desert Storm' war and resulting sanctions).

It would be interesting to know in what way James Baker's message to Saddam
Hussein prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, delivered to him by Ambassador
April Gillespie, was related to the events cited in your article.

It will be remembered that Saddam Hussein asked Gillespie what the Bush
Administration thought of his threats to invade Kuwait. She told him that,
according to James Baker, the U.S. had no position whatsoever. Some
historians believe that Saddam Hussein interpreted this message to mean
that the U.S. would take no action if he carried out the invasion. He
believed this, according to some Iraq analysts, because Iraq had suffered
so much over the years in helping the U.S. contain Iran and therefore, the
U.S. owed Iraq. (Saddam Hussein was threatening Kuwait because he believed
Kuwait had stolen Iraqi oil via the Ramallah oil fields and owed Iraq
reparations).

The question historians have struggled with is why James Baker would have
sent this message to Saddam Hussein. Was it a trap? Would Iraq'' invasion
of Kuwait, after some 40 years of failed U.S. attempts to get its forces on
Middle East soil, provide the excuse needed to put U.S. troops in places
like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and eventually lead to U.S. control of the
Middle East and its oil reserves?

Please continue your investigative reporting on this issue. Eventually your
efforts and those of other dedicated journalists may someday lead to
Americans' understanding of what it means for their government to have a
just and moral foreign policy.

Gratefully,

William A. Thibodeau
Saginaw

The Review welcomes your letters and comments.  Please send all
correspondence to: Letters to the Editor, Review Magazine, 318 S. Hamilton
St., Saginaw, MI 48602.  Or you can e-mail us online at acidpen@cris.com