Putting ‘more boots on the ground’ in Iraq

Re “Securing Baghdad is a numbers game,” Opinion, May 24

One number that Max Boot did not mention is our soldiers killed in Iraq. If we send more troops, as he suggests, there will be more fighting and the number of our soldiers killed will go up. More than 55,000 Americans were killed in action in Vietnam, and then we left. The insurgents know that if they kill enough of us we will leave Iraq too, because we have no justification to be there in the first place. The only reason that we are still in Iraq is to distract the voters from the corrupt politicians and their cronies looting the treasury.

STEVE HARRINGTON

Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.

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Imagine my surprise and shock when I found myself agreeing with Boot’s latest piece calling for more troops in Iraq, not less. We broke it and we now have to fix it, regardless of the cost. It is the height of hypocrisy to have invaded, disbanded the Iraqi army, dismissed the civil service bureaucracy, failed to anticipate and deal with the insurgency, and then to demand the Iraqis fix it themselves without our utmost effort. After it is fixed, those responsible for this adventure should be held accountable. But I think Boot would disagree with that.

HOWARD S. BLUM

Thousand Oaks

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Finally, Boot writes a column in which he makes some sense. In it, he calls for “more boots on the ground” in Iraq. He should leave for Baghdad immediately.

GARY R. LEVINE

Los Alamitos