Support for ending the war in Iraq

Re “Bush gets a breather on war debate,” July 19

It is not surprising that only four GOP senators voted for setting a timeline to withdraw combat troops from Iraq. But I can confidently predict that, in six months or less, more than enough Republicans will change their votes. Little will have changed on the ground in Iraq. The needless slaughter will continue. These GOP senators, perilously close to their next election campaigns, will decide that for their own political survival, they must vote along with the Democrats.

Of course, they will have to rationalize the American lives that will be lost between now and then. But, hey, that’s politics.

RONALD RUBIN

Topanga

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Re “In Senate, no rest for the war-weary,” July 18

Let’s see if I have this correct. Filibusters are OK for the minority party to use to stop the majority, unless the Republicans are the majority party -- then the minority party members are just obstructionists. And anything done to coerce the Republicans to abandon their support of a war that a majority of Americans oppose is a “stunt.”

How many more American military deaths will it take for Republicans to decide to join Democrats and stop this war? Or will they keep hiding behind that phony expression of “supporting the troops” as American military personnel needlessly come home in boxes they won’t let us see?

BARRY NAIDITCH

El Cajon

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Re “GOP call for Iraq review is rejected,” July 16

Will the wait for Army Gen. David H. Petraeus to tell the president what to do be worth the lives it will cost? History says no. Generals can stop pointless wars. Robert E. Lee could have stopped the Civil War, but he didn’t tell Jefferson Davis that the war was lost long before Appomattox. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland didn’t speak the truth to President Lyndon B. Johnson and the nation about the futility of the Vietnam War. Lee and Westmoreland could have stopped those wars months or perhaps years earlier and saved thousands of lives. Now it’s Petraeus’ turn. If Petraeus gets us out of Iraq, he will not become this century’s Lee or Westmoreland.

EVERELL CUMMINS

San Rafael