More troops in Iraq doesn’t add up

Re “Larger U.S. effort in Iraq is proposed,” Dec. 13

A proposed troop increase is an attempt to save face in light of an inevitable reality: The U.S. is going to withdraw from Iraq with less than what it would consider a total victory. Whether this means our definition of victory needs to change or our willingness to use military force needs to be reexamined is a question best left to historians and policymakers in the post-Iraq war world.

What is critical to understand now is that any policy prolonging our presence in Iraq does not serve our national interest and represents a dangerous disconnection from reality.

TRAVIS K. SHARP

Washington

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The suggested troop increase in Iraq from 140,000 to 180,000 is completely wrongheaded. It flies in the face of the 500,000-troop estimate that was originally given to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld when he began to ask the military what it would take to win a war in Iraq. If we needed 500,000 troops to guarantee success, then 40,000 more soldiers is a meaningless drop in a bucket. It is, however, a great excuse to permanently increase the size of the military.

We have sent enough of our sons and daughters into harm’s way. Let’s not recruit more merely so the Pentagon can up its already bloated, out-of-control slice of the budget pie.

ROBERT WALTER

Altadena

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Hey, Americans, we might “double down” some more human lives. I guess our government thinks it’s at the casino and that it’s playing with the house’s money, which is the blood and bones of our sons and daughters. Yeah, what the hell, let’s double down, roll the dice, pull the slot and smoke them out. Flip some more chips on the table; it’s only limbs and skulls, tears and souls.

What a disgusting, repulsive statement.

GENE SCHUBERT

Green Bay, Wis.