Goldberg’s disdain over report on Iraq

Re “Consensus that won’t win the war,” Opinion, Dec. 7

Jonah Goldberg seems upset about the Iraq Study Group report. He thinks that it straddles and appeases all sides without offering anything concrete. I beg to disagree.

It says, unequivocally, that the war in Iraq is no longer winnable. It says we need to find diplomatic solutions to end the slaughter of men, women and children for a cause that never was. It says Iraq is not central to the war on terror. Most important, and perhaps most annoyingly to Goldberg, it mutes the voices of people like him for whom bloodshed is the mark of manliness and patriotism.

Instead of denigrating former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and company, Goldberg should thank them for stonewalling this report until after the elections. Think how much more overwhelming the results could have been.

MICHAEL VALENTE

San Clemente

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Goldberg scolds the Baker-Hamilton commission for failing to “seriously consider how to win the war in Iraq.” Someone needs to tell Goldberg that the war in Iraq was lost long ago.

JAMES K. KNOWLES

Sierra Madre