Linda Cockman of West End (March 9) has asked a relevant question about my column of March 2.

She asked, “With Owings’ reasonings, why aren’t we (the U.S.) in North Korea, in Iran, in Syria, in the Sudan, and, closer to home, in Cuba?”

The simple answer is Iraq is the only country in her list that is and has been in violation of the Desert Storm ceasefire, by targeting and firing on U.S. and British airplanes monitoring the Iraqi agreed to “no fly” zone, plus ignoring multiple United Nations resolutions over the last 12 years.

Mal Owings

Southern Pines