Letters: War in Iraq was no success

This letter calls Operation Iraqi Freedom a "spectacular success" ["Sacrifices in Iraq were worth it," Dec. 26]. The writer then goes on to bash our president for not letting troops stay past Jan. 1, a decision he says sacrifices an important platform and creates a power vacuum. That does not sound too "spectacular."

How long do our armed soldiers have to patrol Iraqi neighborhoods before they will like us? How many do we have to kill before they realize we are their friends?

The writer says, "How dare you suggest that even one drop of American blood was misspent." The day that any American would not dare to suggest an idea is the day our enemies will know they have won.

I disagree that there were "rational reasons to do what we did." We did it to find weapons of mass destruction. That reason was a lie perpetrated by the previous president. No amount of spin can change history.

Dennis F. Dunne, Selden

Editor's note: The writer is retired from the U.S. Merchant Marine.
 

I suspect the real purpose of the Dec. 26 letter was to bash President Barack Obama. The writer's comparison to maintaining troops in Germany and Japan is misleading, as those countries attacked us.

The Bush administration took us to war under false pretenses, a war that killed almost 4,500 service people, including two from my former reserve unit. It will surely go down as one of the greatest follies in American history, and the debt from that mismanaged fiasco is a major contributing factor to the current economic situation.

Instead, the war we should have waged with all of our resources was treated as an afterthought. We allowed the real enemy to regroup and get stronger. I am certain that if the Bush daughters and the children of the neoconservatives who beat the war drums were in uniform, the outcome would have been different.

Yes the world is better off without Saddam Hussein, but it is full of bad people and we can't get rid of them all. I also wonder if the Iraqi people truly think they are better off. It pains me to say it, but I believe the U.S. losses were unnecessary.

I have some issues with the president's track record, but Osama bin Laden was taken out under his watch, and resources were diverted to Afghanistan, where the tide is turning.

Frank X. Ruggiero, Garden City

Editor's note: The writer is a retired major in the U.S. Army Reserve.