If we can’t beat him, let’s join Sadr

Re “Sadr army is called top threat in Iraq,” Dec. 19

There needs to be a strong leader in Iraq. Radical cleric Muqtada Sadr has the strongest militia and is in the Shiite majority. A fundamental principle of democracy is majority rule. Instead of combating Sadr, why not hold an election and replace weak Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki? By promoting Sadr, he becomes friendlier to the U.S. We can use our billions of reconstruction dollars to rebuild Iraq and keep Sadr on our side. He has said one of his priorities is to get the occupiers out of the country. By backing Sadr, we can leave. There is much historical precedent for the U.S. backing a “lesser evil” strongman as has been pointed out recently by Thomas Friedman, Niall Ferguson and, earlier, former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Let’s avoid this certain bloodbath.

AVALON HILL

Long Beach

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The president tells us we must defeat the enemy and shouldn’t quit until our mission has been accomplished. Now new Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates says failure in Iraq would be a calamity. Will someone please define all these terms for us? It feels like a whole lot more people are going to die, and no one really knows why or what we have to do to stop it.

JON WILLIAMS

Santa Barbara