Looking forward to ‘mission accomplished’

Re “Bush Promises a U.S. Exit Linked to Iraqi Readiness,” Dec. 1

We have been fighting the war for three years with no end in sight. If we withdraw from Iraq, President Bush says we would send a message that the U.S. is weak. What kind of message are we sending to larger and more threatening countries if in three years we can’t take control of a small country with no army, no nukes and few police? I wish the lies would stop. But first the war.

CHARLES CAPP

Venice

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Bush no longer says the terrorists in Iraq had anything to do with Sept. 11, but he did say they “share the same ideology” and that once the enemy in Iraq is defeated, Americans will be safer.

Just how will Americans be safer? Iraq is now a major training and recruiting ground for terrorists, and their newly acquired knowledge of powerful explosives would lead one to believe that quite the reverse is true. These jingoistic sound bites may fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but they do naught but allow the continued rampant killing of our military personnel and thousands of Iraqis and other nationalities currently in Iraq.

It is time for a plan to remove our brave military from this ill-conceived incursion on a nonthreatening country.

TOM HAMMAN

Huntington Beach

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It is ironic that 60 years ago there was a regime that tortured its detained enemies and lost the war anyway. Now there is this nation, the winner of that previous war, that is practicing the same methods and expects to win it.

PABLO BEHRENS

London

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When my brother enlisted in the Marines in 1942, the training cycle was abbreviated to nine weeks. When I entered the Army during the Korean War, the training cycle was 18 weeks. What is it I don’t understand about the delay in training Iraqi forces to defend their new democracy?

JOHN DOWDEN

Newport Beach

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In his speech, the president was positive, inspiring and forward looking, talking of his pride in the troops, America and this mission. In contrast, the Democratic leadership is negative, gloom and doom, and wants to surrender.

If Democrats had to re-fight World War II or the Cold War, or if they were in charge of fighting this war, Americans would be speaking German, Japanese, Russian or Arabic and wearing burkas.

JERRY E. SMITH

Yorba Linda