The U.S. presence in Iraq

Re “For ‘08, the Iraq question is pointless,” Opinion, April 9

Kudos to Andrew J. Bacevich for enunciating with such clarity what has been obvious for some time -- that the U.S. is powerless to affect the outcome in Iraq. Although it is not possible to know how the landscape will eventually appear, in all likelihood the denouement has been determined. The only effect of our continued presence will be to lengthen the time it takes to play out.

Meanwhile, all the negative consequences of our presence in Iraq continue to be exacerbated.

MICHAEL HORSTEIN

Los Angeles

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Re “Investigation fills in blanks on how war groundwork was laid,” April 6

With depressing clarity, we see how former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz hatched the Iraq war. To fabricate links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, he asked former Pentagon official Douglas Feith for bogus intelligence to be pulled together on “short turn-around.” Feith knew hardly anything of intelligence work. And with depressing regularity, Vice President Dick Cheney has again asserted that these links once existed.

This defies the findings of the 9/11 commission and the latest Pentagon report. And it further confirms the Downing Street memo stating that the facts justifying the invasion had been “fixed around the policy.” They still are, and will be, until this nightmare ends in January 2009.

RAYMOND FREEMAN

Thousand Oaks