Own Up to a Mistaken War, or Own the Results in Iraq

Re “Face the Iraq Fiasco, Senator,” Commentary, April 27: Unless John Kerry admits that the war was and continues to be a mistake, he will not afford the voters a clear choice in November. I voted for Lyndon Johnson in 1964 as the Democratic alternative to Barry Goldwater, only to witness an escalation of troop commitments and war in Vietnam. Could history repeat itself with a President Kerry?

Robert Scheer is correct. We need an orderly withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, with multilateral supervision of the process. Yes, we can expect some disorder after our withdrawal, as the various factions maneuver for power; but what is there in Iraq at this time if not utter, murderous chaos? The civilized world shares the goal of total victory in the struggle against terror, but with President Bush’s war in Iraq we are observing the expansion and metastasis of terror. When he stepped into the pottery store, Bush broke it and now owns it. Kerry must reject any semblance of ownership.

Manuel Mora

Los Angeles

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I think Scheer should examine his own reliance on conventional wisdom in regard to the U.N. In Yugoslavia, the peacekeeping troops watched as Slobodan Milosevic “cleansed” his country of Muslims. In Rwanda, there were U.N. troops in country as 800,000 innocent humans were butchered with machetes. Cambodia, the Mideast -- the list goes on and on.

We now know that the U.N. set up an oil-for-food program that fleeced the Iraqi people of up to $10 billion. When the brave Brazilian U.N. worker, Sergio Vieira de Mello, with his dying breath, pleaded with the U.N. to stay in Iraq, what did his bosses in New York do? They packed up and left. Apparently Scheer still believes that this is the organization best equipped to handle the current crisis.

Kevin Peters

Fullerton

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If I’m an Iraqi insurgent, I love The Times keeping me up to date that U.S. public opinion is finally turning my way (“Doubts About Iraq Conflict Growing in U.S., Poll Shows,” April 29). If I were your publisher, I’d start rolling out an Arabic-language edition.

I also love Ted Koppel’s plan to devote 40 minutes of “Nightline” to reading a list of the Americans killed in Iraq (April 29). That’s great reporting, isn’t it? They’re just honoring the dead, right?

Frank Shofner

Mission Viejo

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Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denounce Al Jazeera’s coverage of the war (April 28) -- as if NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox News give a balanced report. Rumsfeld’s descriptive language calling the Arab TV station “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” makes one wonder if he is talking about a foreign broadcast network or the Bush administration’s handling of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

John Zavesky

Riverside

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The “issue” of whether to show images of American soldiers’ coffins draped in the American flag has been shamelessly politicized. The Democrats want to illustrate the “needless losses” in a “needless” war. The Republicans want to censor the pictures to diminish the costs of the Iraq invasion. The fact that the issue is being politicized at all brings shame on both sides -- it is disgusting.

Richard Vaczy

Beverly Hills

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I have a brother-in-law serving in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. I listen intently to the news and hear every day about some terrorist leader with automatic weapons and grenade launchers striking or threatening to strike American soldiers. Where do these weapons come from? What country is supplying them? Why aren’t we stopping their flow into Iraq? American soldiers are dying, and it just has to stop.

Theodore Smith III

Los Angeles