Letter: Time for the people to pull the plug

Monday, Jan. 8, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

Does anybody out there remember Vietnam? Does anybody realize that the same hopeless situation we now find ourselves in - in Iraq - happened before? And does anybody realize how we ended that murderous, expensive debacle?

The people stood up! Yes. Finally. The taxpaying citizens of this nation finally held our government accountable and we pulled the plug. We pressured our employee-representatives in Washington and told them, very explicitly: No more funds for Vietnam! The people pulled the plug and our military pulled out and came home. The people won.

The war in Vietnam was the only war in the history of the world that was started by a government and stopped by the people.

No matter how many future billion-dollar, deadly, military "surges" we may attempt in Iraq, the truth remains constant over the centuries. We cannot force our democracy on people with no desire for its most important component - self rule. And especially in an area of the world where sectarian violence, religious self-righteousness, tribal hatred, blood lust and an overwhelming thirst for revenge for past "slights" have been fomenting for thousands of years.

Come on, people. Wake up and stand up! Today, let us bombard our senators and representatives in Washington with e-mails, letters, phone calls, post cards, whatever - no more funds for Iraq!

Why should we continue weakening our military, bankrupting our treasury, destroying our national reputation and inciting ever more violence with our mere presence in a land where we are not wanted?

It is once again time to pull the plug.

Carrie Steele, Las Vegas