Letter: Lesson from Vietnam is to not abandon Iraq

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

Carrie Steele's Jan. 8 letter, headlined, "Time for the people to pull the plug," shows a complete lack of knowledge of history. She asks, does anyone out there remember Vietnam? Well, I do.

I remember the killing fields of Vietnam and Cambodia when we abandoned Southeast Asia and over a million people were killed. I remember the boat people. No one knows how many people perished in the South China Sea trying to flee a repressive regime.

I remember the reeducation camps of what was South Vietnam. I remember Vietnamese women handing their babies over the wall of the embassy to strangers rather than have them grow up with the communists.

I remember that it took decades for the United States to regain the respect of the rest of the world after walking out on an ally.

And now we should just walk out on Iraq? Leave the people to the sectarian violence? Yes, Ms. Steele, let's just walk out and leave these people and that's going to save our national reputation. Right.

One thing I can say about Osama bin Laden - he was right. He said that the American people do not have the strength to fight a long and protracted war, and we are proving him right. Let's just leave Iraq to the terrorists - who in America cares anyway?

Dan Carr, Las Vegas