Letter: U.S. should remove troops from Iraq now

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004 | 8:49 a.m.

Even though I am a veteran of the Korean War, I've had my doubts about whether we should have engaged in that war. And I'm pretty sure that Vietnam was wrong. But there is no doubt about this Iraq debacle.

My president attacked a country that was at peace. It made me think of Germany and Poland. This Iraq quagmire is an unnecessary and horrible mistake.

I was sickened when President Bush asked Congress for authority to go to war, because I knew he would do it. There were no acts of terrorism in Iraq in the months before he attacked and we had hundreds of weapons inspectors "occupying" Iraq and they were not being harassed.

Now there are thousands of new terrorists in Iraq and a potential of millions of more terrorists in the Arab world because they hate us so. More than 15,000 innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed. More than 1,250 members of the U.S. military have been killed.

We should remove all troops from Iraq, then air drop millions of rifles with ammunition all over the country so the innocent civilians could defend themselves against the terrorists. The terrorists could no longer use the "Americans as occupiers" excuse for their terror, and we could assist the innocent Iraqis by using missiles to destroy the terrorist strongholds. We could air drop food and medicine to aid the Iraqis for a lot less money than we are spending now.

If they ever attacked another country, we have the power to destroy their entire country within hours, and they know it.

DEE R. EGBERT