Letter: It’s time to bring our troops home

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

It is clear that neither the Bush administration nor its critics have an effective plan for solving the Iraq war crisis. Our soldiers are now being killed at a rate of about three per day. And many, many more are being disabled in terrible ways.

Iraqi deaths are reported to range from about 32,000 to about 650,000. We have spent millions of borrowed dollars on this war of presidential choice. I think most will agree our soldiers are now adding to instead of reducing the violence.

Clearly, we should pull our troops and contractor people out of Iraq with all deliberate speed consistent with their safety. Following this the Iraqi people will solve their internal security problems as they see fit and establish a government of their choosing.

If, in the future, Iraq becomes a threat to the world's interest, or if other nations try to step in and take over Iraq, we could work with the United Nations and the neighboring countries to diplomatically solve that problem as we are doing with the nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran. This plan will stop the deaths of our soldiers and add some consistency to our foreign policy.

As to terrorists following us back to America when we leave, that's what we have Border Patrol, federal agencies and police departments for. An American is much more likely to be killed by a traffic accident than by a terrorist attack.

Charles R. Parrish, Las Vegas