Rumsfeld Was Told What Was Needed in Iraq

Re “Rumsfeld Says Troop Losses Unexpected,” April 16: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld may not have expected the losses, but he was warned. That warning was brushed off, and one of the finest generals this country has ever seen was summarily retired.

On June 11, 2003, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki said, “We must ensure the Army has the capabilities to match the strategic environment in which we operate, a force sized correctly to meet the strategy set forth in the documents that guide us -- our national security and national military strategies.... Our soldiers and families bear the risk and the hardship of carrying a mission load that exceeds what force capabilities we can sustain, so we must alleviate risk and hardship by our willingness to resource the mission requirement.”

In my opinion, the U.S. needs to start using a “sledgehammer to kill an ant” mentality and finish the job once and for all. We should ask the general back to service. He knew very well what he was talking about.

Mario Duran

Covina

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Our commander in chief (Bush) made a commitment to U.S. troops that they would be rotated out of Iraq in 12 months. Last week, he broke that commitment by extending their tour of duty by three months. If he cannot be trusted to keep a commitment to his subordinates (troops), how can any individual or any country expect him to keep his commitments to them?

William J. Crampon

Lakewood

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Re “ ‘Please Pray for Me; This Is No Cake Walk ... ‘ “ Commentary, April 15: Reading the letters of 20-year-old Spc. Michelle Witmer to her family really brought this awful war home to me. Witmer, who was killed in an ambush April 9, was a bright, articulate young woman, and her words brought tears to my eyes as I felt a tiny fraction of the pain that must be engulfing her family today. Her e-mails allowed me to relate to her in a way that no objective news story ever could.

My own daughter turned 30 this year, something Witmer will never do. If I had lost my daughter to Bush’s insane and totally misbegotten war, my rage would know no bounds. How many more of our fine young men and women will be sacrificed on the altar of Bush’s grandiose nation-building?

Steve Marshall

Castaic

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So, thousands of foreign terrorists, jihad warriors, Islamic extremists and would-be suicide bombers flock to Iraq and Afghanistan to gladly give their lives to maybe maim or kill a couple of U.S. soldiers. Or would you rather those same fanatics make their way to an American city -- or Great Britain, or Spain, or France -- to attack civilian “soft” targets?

No, I’d rather take them on in Afghanistan or Iraq, with the best force we can muster -- the U.S. military. I say the president’s got it right: “Bring ‘em on!”

Douglas LaFountain

Lompoc