Letter: Redirect troops against al-Qaida

Friday, Sept. 26, 2003 | 9:46 a.m.

The sympathies for the hardship experienced by troops during war expressed in the Sept. 23 letter by disabled Vietnam veteran Jim Armbrust touched my heart. It is a shame that the historical lesson of Vietnam has been so quickly forgotten.

The Bush administration's justifications for the Iraqi invasion, with the exception that Saddam Hussein was a bad person, remain unproven. The administration has failed to address the same questions in Iraq that the Johnson administration failed to address in Vietnam. Are our actions in our national interest? Is the U.S. and the rest of the world more secure? Is the cost in American lives, tax dollars and assault on our freedoms worth the alleged benefits?

American forces in Iraq resemble sitting ducks as opposed to a security force, a job for which they were not trained. Iraq needs to govern, rebuild and secure itself with its own resources and with a minimum of outside help. The U.S. needs to end its fixation with Iraq and redirect its attention toward al-Qaida and other organizations that advocate the use of terrorism as a means to accomplish political ends.

Despite the administration's behavior toward the rest of the world, no man or nation is an island. We need the goodwill and assistance of the rest of the world.

JOHN A. GREENMAN