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Who Will Run Iraq When America Pulls Out?

Dear Editor,

Among all the frightful and disheartening news about the disaster our Fearless Leader likes to call Operation Iraqi Freedom, one fact becomes increasingly important, one the Administration has taken great pains to avoid talking about refugee situation which is all by itself remaking the Middle East in significant and unintended ways.

Currently there are approximately 2 million Iraqi citizens who have relocated to other countries, and unlike most refugee situations the majority of those asked say that they have no desire to return in the future because they see the sectarian and tribal violence as a condition likely to last through several generations. Another 1.7 million still in the country have been displaced from their local areas due to sectarian balkanization. All in all, about 40 percent of Iraq’s middle class is now gone – the doctors, lawyers, professors, administrators and others whose skills will be necessary to rebuild the society if and when the daily mass killings cease.

So even if our leading leader who leads by leading because he’s a leader (as he never tires of telling us) were to succeed with his latest plan to quell the violence, what will Iraq then consist of, who will run it, who will administer the infrastructure, who will teach the children, who will manage the courts, who will represent Iraq to the world when the educated, the trained, and the experienced have all gone to other countries and become Jordanian or Syrian or Iranian? One can only wonder if Bush has ever heard, much less thought about, the term “Pyrrhic victory.”

To paraphrase an infamous quote from the Viet Nam era, as the true magnitude of the catastrophe we have created becomes undeniably apparent we may hear Condoleeza Rice defend her boss’s limitless incompetence by claiming “It was necessary to destroy Iraq in order to save it.” 

Robert B. Mitchell, Morgan Hill 

Bush is Too Coward to Admit Defeat

Dear Editor,

Though public opinion heavily opposes him, President Bush justifies his “troop surge” strategy because a principled stand is more important than popularity, and withdrawal from Iraq would bring defeat. He misses the point twice.

First, the implied conclusion underlying the public’s opinion that we should withdraw is that it is obvious that we have already been defeated, and that the surge will merely add more deaths. The principle of putting the lives of others before personal pride requires Bush to adopt public opinion. But, Bush is too much of a coward to admit defeat, even if it means sacrificing others to keep the illusion of hope alive in his own mind.

Second, in Vietnam, Nixon refused to withdraw for years, with the same lament that we couldn’t “simply pull out.” After much more loss of life, we did exactly that. Remember pictures of the crowd of terrified Vietnamese, some clinging to the landing gear of the last helicopter as it lifted off the roof of the U.S. Embassy? Bush’s inability to admit his mistake, his failure learn from this history, dooms us to a bloody repetition of it.

Bruce Tichinin, Morgan Hill

Editor’s Viewpoint About War Isn’t Representative of All Residents

Dear Editor,

As a resident who has made Morgan Hill his home for nearly 29 years I resent your Jan. 16 editorial in which you wrote, “Morgan Hill residents, as the rest of the nation, no longer trust our President, and are sick of his lies and failed attempts to end a conflict that shouldn’t have been started in the first place. Get out of Iraq!”

Please don’t attempt to speak for all Morgan Hill residents when you hurl your attitude of distrust and disgust for our President, because you don’t speak for me, you don’t speak for my friends and neighbors, and you certainly don’t speak for all of America. You simply express the views of a liberal small-town editorial staff of a twice weekly published newspaper that risks losing readership by pretending to represent the views of all of us. There are many citizens of Morgan Hill who believe that leaving Iraq right now would be disastrous and continue to pledge support to our President and the troops who put themselves in harm’s way to make our country safer. So next time please say “It is the opinion of this editor … ” but don’t attempt to put words in our mouths.

Dave Mounteer, Morgan Hill