Letter: American troops deserve better than this

Friday, Oct. 27, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

U.S. troop fatalities in Iraq have exceeded 2,800. Tens of thousands have been wounded physically, mentally, horribly and permanently with no clear end in sight.

We've lost respect, credibility and hundreds of billions of dollars pursuing a pipe-dream-turned-nightmare in Iraq that's become the mother of all failures of nation-building and democracy-forcing we've ever seen.

And we can't blame this one on Saddam or Osama. Nope. This is the result of the reckless decision the Bush administration made when it diverted resources from Afghanistan, where the terrorists who attacked us were, to Iraq, where they weren't. This war was their idea, their counterproductive, nonsensical solution to fighting global terror.

If we don't hold them accountable legally or morally, we should at least hold them accountable for their colossal stupidity.

It was stupid to assume Iraqis would sit idly by after we attacked, invaded and occupied their sovereign country.

It was stupid to assume Iraqis who hated each other for centuries would kiss and make up overnight because we told them to.

It was stupid for an American administration to show the world it's not that much different from dictators and terrorists who likewise use extreme violence to achieve their personal and political goals with utter disregard for how many innocent people they will kill.

We've called upon American troops many times to sacrifice their lives to defend our freedom and our liberty. It's immoral and indecent to continue to ask them to sacrifice their lives to defend our stupidity.

Joyce Segal, Las Vegas