Winding down the clock on Iraq war

Re “An Iraq success story,” Opinion, April 24

It’s pathetic to read the learned Max Boot as he sifts through the ashes of a tragically failed policy and strains to find a “success” story in Iraq.

The factual success story is the removal of Saddam Hussein, discovering for certain that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that an infrastructure for democratic rule has been established. But citing the reduction of violence in one province largely misses the fact that we have unleashed a civil war and we have no right to be in the middle of it. We have paid dearly for our victories; it’s up to the Iraqis to resolve their own civil war.

VINCENT DE VITA

Northridge

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Boot concludes his column by saying, “Unless, of course, antiwar politicians back home succeed in pulling the plug, in which case defeat is guaranteed.” Could he please be more specific? What defeat is he talking about? Is it defeat by Al Qaeda? Is it defeat by the Shiite militias? Is it defeat by the Sunni militias? Is it defeat by Iraqis who wish for the U.S. occupation to end? If defeat is the last one, is the objective to defeat those Iraqis who wish for the U.S. occupation to end, and then having done so, end the occupation?

CHRIS LEITHEAD

Manchester, England

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If, as Boot says, 90 Americans lost their lives to pacify Ramadi, a city of about 400,000, then it will take more than 1,000 American lives lost to accomplish the same in Baghdad. This estimate assumes that the insurgents don’t improve their tactics after their loss and that we don’t change ours after our “success.”

That may be OK with Boot, but it’s not OK with me, and I doubt that it’s OK with the troops or their families.

STEVE HARRINGTON

Cardiff, Calif.