Letter: Bush answerable for poor planning in Iraq

Friday, Aug. 4, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

In 1984 Wendy's restaurant chain captivated America with a TV commercial and a catch phrase, "Where's the beef?" Senior citizen Clara Peller was the star of that memorable commercial.

Today, we are engaged in war without end in Iraq. We need Clara back, asking President George W. Bush a parallel question: "Where's the plan?" We are spending about $2 billion a week on the war and have lost more than 2,500 soldiers with nearly 20,000 wounded. The end is nowhere in sight.

Apparently the administration has no plan for our withdrawal from this war. We at home continue to hear a sucking sound growing louder every day as more and more money and resources are draining our wallets and national treasury dry. Washington propagandists tell us to never mind the growing national debt, because the economy is growing robustly.

When asked about withdrawal of our troops, the president and his administrative spokespersons are every evasive and noncommittal. The danger that our country will be sucked into a broad civil war in Iraq that will eventually involve Iran and nuclear weapons increases daily.

The president insists there is no civil war, all is going well and that eventual troop withdrawal will be the decision of field commanders. What is presented as reality by the administration is questionable in light of the continued cost in terms of financial burden, resources expended and American wounded and dead reported weekly.

The American public must insist on an answer to the question, "Where's the plan?"

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas