Too Much More of the Same in Iraq

The dead in Iraq add up day after day. We call those fighting against us “insurgents.” Maybe they fight because we forcibly invaded their country. Maybe they don’t like the puppet government we put in place. Are we to assume these so-called insurgents are all terrorists, and if we don’t knock them down and kill them, we are all in danger? Many in America conveniently believe this.

President Bush chose to invade Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction so that Saddam Hussein wouldn’t use them against us. Because weapons were not found, Bush now says we preemptively attacked to rid the world of Hussein. Well, we accomplished that at a tremendous cost in human lives and money that could be put to much better use here in America.

So why are we still there? Why do we put up with the unending deaths of our beautiful young people as well as the killing of Iraqis day after day? Do you think it might have something to do with “soccer moms” needing to drive kids to their games in sport utility vehicles?

Gerald Orcholski

Pasadena

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Depicting the “other” as cockroaches is the same tactic used by any warmongering society to influence people into thinking “others” are not human and, therefore, worthy of extermination. I had thought that the human race had evolved beyond this divisive attitude. The Nov. 13 Michael Ramirez cartoon is not funny, clever or irreverent; it is simply hateful and dangerous.

Carolina Goodman

Sherman Oaks

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Re “Marine Whose Photo Lit Up Imaginations Keeps His Cool,” Nov. 14: Though I do not dispute the obvious iconographic quality of the image in question, I do regret your lack of judgment in creating yet another smoking-related icon.

It is sad to say that by preserving the “cool” image of tobacco you may unthinkingly cause more American deaths than the Iraqi insurgents this past week.

Peter Cowan

London

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Re “Iraqi City Lies in Ruins,” Nov. 15: Patrick J. McDonnell’s report should be required reading for every representative and senator in Washington. Every time Bush declares himself a “war president” and decides to spend “America’s capital” that he thinks he earned, he should be forced to read this report aloud to the House and Senate!

Will America lie in ruins before this president and his war-mongering cronies are held accountable for this horrendous waste in human lives and the total destruction of Iraq?

Now we must rebuild Fallouja and the rest of Iraq at a cost of billions of dollars that are so desperately needed here by every state in the union. Wake up, America, before thousands more members of our military are slaughtered and maimed.

Phyllis Lilly

Ridgecrest

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We had to destroy [Fallouja] in order to save it. It’s deja vu all over again.

Did the country really vote for “more of the same”?

Selwyn Brent

Huntington Beach