Was Bush Playing Politics with Fallouja?

Re “Rumsfeld Looks to Military Success to ‘Tip’ Iraqi Opinion,” Nov. 9: In April, fearful that the assault on Fallouja would result in more casualties than Americans could stomach, and thus derail his campaign, President Bush pulled the troops back. Throughout the campaign, Bush continually assured his supporters in every stump speech that “progress is being made in Iraq.” Interim Iraqi leader Iyad Allawi was in the United States, saying that the chaos we saw daily in Iraq was overstated.

Yet barely six days after winning the election, the battle of Fallouja has been restarted, martial law is declared in Iraq and, to add to the cynical stew, the world is presented with another front-and-center from the man who brought us Abu Ghraib: the one and only [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld. And they won the elections because of their “moral values.”

Darkness descends.

Ruth Caper

Los Angeles

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What do we need to do as Americans to learn our failures of war? Our young soldiers are in a bloody battle for Fallouja. It sounds so courageous to occupy a country that had a hateful leader, but what if a powerful country decided to occupy us. Does anyone remember at the beginning of this war that we were suppose to be liberators, not occupiers? Would you fight for San Diego if you were left there to die by the occupiers?

Americans must realize that everyone in Fallouja is not a terrorist. We are killing our young soldiers and thousands of theirs.

When did we start looking at all Iraqis as less than human? Where are your hearts? I believe we have lost our souls and we will pay a price for our lack of compassion. When you kill real people’s fathers and mothers and sons and daughters, they will hate you. Stop this insanity now.

Roberta Veatch

Del Mar

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So now, only after the election, are we to enter the charnel house known as Fallouja. It would be naive in the extreme to conclude that now is the optimal time, from a purely military standpoint, to launch what will surely be bloody, grinding urban warfare.

Rather, it is far more likely that the insurgents were left unmolested to consolidate and strengthen their position so as not to upset the electorate. One can only conclude that the Bush administration has played partisan politics with the blood of our troops and innocent Iraqi civilians. There is a word to characterize such behavior, and it is a word that the administration’s evangelical supporters are quick to use against political opponents. That word is “evil.”

Evan Puziss

Mar Vista