Pulling the trigger on Iraq withdrawal

Re “Controversy over Pentagon spending plan,” Nov. 29

Now begins the real work of ending this disastrous, unnecessary and immoral war. Congress must:

* Set a timetable for withdrawal, with a fixed start time.

* Redirect the funds being spent on the occupation toward an orderly withdrawal of troops.

* Prohibit any new funds from being spent on any new troop deployment.

* Provide adequate funding for an Iraqi-led reconstruction of Iraq.

* Actively oppose any new war of aggression against Iran.

MARTINE TOMCZYK

Los Angeles

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President Bush stated in Riga on Tuesday that the Iraq conflict is primarily caused by Al Qaeda. His generals, including the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have recently stated that Al Qaeda, though still a presence in Iraq, has been disorganized and diminished by the American forces and is not the primary factor in the Iraq conflict. They all say that it’s sectarian violence and reprisals.

Where is Bush getting his information? He says he’s listening to his generals, but his statement makes it clear he is not.

Didn’t he get the Nov. 7 message? The people have spoken: We want a change in the administration’s Iraq policies, but he is turning a deaf ear.

RON SAMUELS

Studio City

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Re “Rising violence swells ranks of Iraq’s militias,” Nov. 28

The Western world’s inability to understand the tribal and religious underpinnings of Iraq and the rest of the Arab world is of long standing. The proof is in the media coverage: “How much longer are valuable lives to be sacrificed in the vain endeavor to impose upon the Arab population an elaborate and expensive administration they never asked for and do not want.”

That was in a story in the Times of London -- dated Aug. 7, 1920.

MARTY COOPER

Encino

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All the dithering about whether to have a timetable for withdrawal points to a fear of making any decision at all. We are interlopers in a tribal blood feud, not a nationalist struggle for power like in Vietnam. There must be some way to end a blood feud, but nobody on our side knows, having had no such experience.

Our military continues with increasingly irrelevant security forces.The Iraqi government our civilian leadership wants has no legs. Let us get out of the way now. Only the Iraqis can stop themselves. If they want the government we support, they will keep it, but if they don’t, they don’t.

GERI A.

MELLGREN-KERWIN

Burbank

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Re “Civil wars, without end,” Opinion, Nov. 27

Niall Ferguson suffers from the usual defect of even the most astute pundits: inadequate skepticism about the peace-loving posturing of political operatives. Why aren’t the “clash of civilization” buffs indulging in the currently fashionable media hand-wringing over the Middle East? The “bad guys” (as they see them) are killing each other off -- that’s why.

If the so-called Islamo-fascists want to cannibalize themselves in endless civil strife, well then, God is great, isn’t he? A lot of those tears being shed in Washington are of the crocodile variety.

GILBERT DEWART

Pasadena