Letter: Congressmen turn their backs on democracy

Monday, July 31, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

This is in response to the July 27 editorial in the Las Vegas Sun headlined, "Speech boycott warranted."

I am surprised and ashamed of the actions of our representatives, Shelley Berkley and Jon Porter, who boycotted the speech in the House of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. I am also surprised that the Sun would find their actions warranted.

We have, as the editorial states, made a $300 billion investment in Iraq, including putting 127,000 troops on the ground, with more than 2,560 of them dying for the cause of establishing a democracy in Iraq.

There was no mention in the editorial of the waste of billions of dollars that have not helped build infrastructure. There was no mention of the fact that there is no security for the majority of civilians.

There is rarely any number listed in the papers for the thousands of our troops who were wounded, with many of them having become permanently disabled during their fight to achieve this democracy. There is also no accurate number for the Iraqi dead, wounded or permanently disabled as a result of our incursion into Iraq under false intelligence.

When this man who is living through this, whom we have helped to become prime minister, does not say exactly what our and other representatives want to hear, he is boycotted. What kind of a democracy are we trying to establish in Iraq at such great cost? Or did we only want a puppet?

Donna S. London, Las Vegas