Shiites Know the Benefit of Election Involvement

Re “Shiites Reject Election Delay,” Nov. 28: As well they should. They have learned from their own history. It is because the Shiites refused to join the electoral process set up by the British in the 1920s that they were shut out of power and exploited up to the present day. If the Sunnis want to do the same, then so be it. After all, the latest U.S. presidential election only drew 59% of the voters to the polls, a “record” participation. Which means that 41% of our electorate sat out or boycotted this election.

Still, the present regime in Washington calls this a “mandate.” So, if 41% of the Iraqi electorate chooses to also sit out or boycott the election in January, whether this be along ethnic or religious lines, or simply laziness or disenchantment, would not this election be just as legitimate as ours?

Maude Ham

Burbank

*

Re “Every Enlistee First a Warrior,” Nov. 29: According to the Army’s official investigation, almost every weapon in the 507th Maintenance Company malfunctioned during the March 2003 ambush. This indicated an appalling lack of training in that unit.

The Times article indicated that it was a “wake-up call for the American armed forces.” It certainly wasn’t a wake-up call for the U.S. Marine Corps; Marines have always been trained as warriors first regardless of military occupational specialty. From initial training, followed by annual requalifications, every Marine knows how to use and maintain his personal weapons. It’s just common sense that in a war zone you can’t guarantee anyone a safe haven.

Lt. Col. Jack Swallows

U.S. Marine Corps retired

San Juan Capistrano

*

Re “Marines Train a Secret Weapon on Babil Province,” Nov. 27: Send this article to film studios currently pumping out the scourge of good-versus-evil historical war movies. With the sound of “Cobra attack helicopters thumping overhead,” who could resist thrusting fist in the air in support of SWAT team raids that rouse families from sleep and round up men for questioning? Who could feel anything but pride for an American military that adopts a seemingly novel “integrated approach” wherein Americans eat, live and fight alongside Iraqis?

The invasion of Iraq is not a movie, though. And no rosy journalistic portrait of the white man’s burden can hide the horrors of destruction and death that are being perpetrated.

Nadya Zimmerman

Ventura

*

I am disgusted by our current war policy. But what angers and scares me even more is that the growing violent anti-American sentiment in Iraq and the rest of the world will begin to be used as an argument for why we need to wage yet more war, even though it is this war policy that is driving this increasing threat in the first place.

“Quagmire” is such a historically loaded word. I prefer to use “nightmare.”

Mike Severa

Pasadena