Which way on the war?

Re “For McCain, the surge is a losing strategy,” Opinion, July 22

Jonah Goldberg avoids discussing the real issues and instead sidesteps to argue details, as if those were what mattered.

The Iraq war is a waste of money. It has made Iran more powerful, has let Osama bin Laden off the hook and has put us into a quagmire from which John McCain sees no end. But ignore that stuff -- the surge is working.

What will we get from this war after we leave? Fewer attacks? A stable Middle East? My guess is, neither. Iraq will revert to something different than what we set up, and we’ll have a huge deficit.

Goldberg also asserts that “Americans want it to be over ... in a way they can be proud of.” There is no way I’ll ever be proud of this war, no matter what happens. Voters are mistaken if they think McCain is the better commander. I judge McCain by his biggest command of all -- his vote to get us into this stupid, wasteful war.

Dave Koepke

West Hills

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We are not involved in two wars, as our government and our candidates seem to believe. We are involved in one war -- the war on terrorists -- on two fronts, Afghanistan and now Iraq, which has become a training camp for Al Qaeda. If leaders had taken this perspective, the surge would have placed 30,000 troops in Afghanistan before the current push by Al Qaeda and the Taliban, rather than in Baghdad.

We need to focus our attention on the ultimate goal of defeating Al Qaeda. We also must remember that the ultimate defeat of terrorism will be by winning the hearts and minds of the disenfranchised, not hitting them over the head with a big stick.

Jim Davis

Glendale