Bring U.S. efforts in Iraq to an end

Re “A reality check on Iraq,” editorial, Aug. 6

We can pull out now or pull out later. It won’t affect the result of our big-stick theory of democracy-building. We have created an Iraq that is now on an irreversible path to Shiite theocracy.

Blather all you wish, but it is obvious to this college dropout truck driver that, to the average Iraqi, our imposed democracy (an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one) has created a country that is such a horror, that is so much worse than it was before our invasion, that upon our leaving the Shiite majority will turn Iraq into another Iran.

MIKE KVAMMEN

South Pasadena

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Iraq has been in a sectarian war, and it will get worse and spread across the region. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki didn’t ignore this fact. As a devoted Shiite, he is taking full advantage of the American support to take revenge on the Sunnis because of years of suppression and brutality under Saddam Hussein’s regime. Sunnis have known that a Shiite majority government will become their enemy as the result of American democracy.

ALI SHAHMIRI

San Diego

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Your comments are extremely appropriate, and hopefully some form of concrete action will ensue to impress on the Iraqis that they must take control of their country and erase the infighting. U.S. troops must come home and return to their families and lives. Our altruistic goals to democratize this country have been short-circuited by ageless cultural infighting that we can no longer accept or contend with. I pray that the elections in November will fortify the notion to Congress that enough is truly enough in Iraq.

RONALD L. WALLACE

Sherman Oaks