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Wars waged by civilian leaders

Wednesday, March 28 at 11:15 AM

Mark Krautler, Broomfield

Justifying an illegal war Rightly or wrongly, wars are waged by civilian leadership. The military obeys the orders of the President and the Congress. By necessity, the military must act with all force and decisiveness to maximize mission success and minimize casualties. We cannot ask soldiers to debate the war when hot searing led and metal are flying their way. I support our military, where ever they may serve. These are our nation’s sons and daughters, mothers and fathers thrust into harms way. But, if a war is born on the wings of a lie, as I believe the Iraq war was, I cannot support the war itself. There is no ambiguity here (Paul Sherbo, Iraq: running away screaming – “if the people who do the fighting support the effort, how in the world do their opponents justify their opposition?”). I justify my opposition quite simply. President Bush illegally lied his way into this war with no thought to those who would fight it or pay the price for it. I cannot and will not support that. It’s been demonstrated Iraq had no connection to 911 (Bush said this himself!), no weapons of mass destruction, did not attack us and was not an imminent threat to our homeland. Saddam Hussein, one of many brutal dictators, was contained. He, himself, was containing the factions, Sunni and Shia. Inspectors were on the ground doing their work. Intelligence, patience and political cooperation could have taken Saddam out eventually, without the gross destruction we have wrought. And yet, after billions of tax dollars spent, the master mind of 911 still roams free. If what you start is tainted to begin with, how can continuing it be right? We have broken plenty and have plenty to fix. This will not happen militarily. Think a never ending arcade game of Whak-A-Mole. Despite the fact we should never have invaded a sovereign nation, we must now do what we ought to have done when Bush claimed “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended”, redeploy the military and empower the Iraqis to rebuild their own country. Electricity anyone? Yes, we “broke” the lid off the box, more like Pandora’s box. We did not go to Iraq to solve thousands of years of faction infighting. The ongoing civil war is not ours to stop. It is folly to try. Go ask the Brits!

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

I support the war, but I don't support the troops. That's why I'm comfortable with them dying all the time. I mean, after all, it's not like I have to do anything either way.

Posted by on March 28, 2007 12:22 PM