Letter: Iraq war did not create terrorism

Sunday, Oct. 8, 2006 | 7:42 a.m.

I am continually amazed at the naivete of people like letter writers Jim Riley ("Voters look other way when others sacrifice," Oct. 6) and Cornelius Harrington ("Sense of fear replaces sense of reason," Oct. 6).

Currently, it makes no difference whether we were right or wrong to go into Iraq - we are now there. The enemy is worldwide Islamic terrorism, and its center today is Iraq. If we were to leave Iraq, would al-Qaida and other groups allied with it stop their attacks on Americans? You would be wrong to think so!

We were not in Iraq when in 1983 Islamic terrorists drove a delivery truck into the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 220 Marines and 21 other service members; when in 1993 Islamic terrorists bombed the World Trade Center, killing six and injuring 1,042 people; when Islamic terrorists blew up the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39; when they blew up U.S. Army barracks in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 and injuring hundreds; when they blew up two American embassies in Africa, causing 257 deaths and 4,000 wounded. We were not in Iraq when Islamic terrorists hijacked and drove passenger planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, killing 2,996 people.

We have been in this war for 27 years (since 1979 - the Iranian hostages crisis in Tehran), and it's not going to stop by cutting and running from Iraq!

Warren Willis Sr., Las Vegas