Letter: Pessimism won’t help us reach goal in Iraq

Wednesday, July 4, 2007 | 1:04 a.m.

In response to LaRue S. Boenig's July 1 letter, "Bush must recognize mess he's gotten us in":

We all know what the bad news is from Iraq. No one deplores this violence more than the president, I am certain.

The fact, which many wish to ignore, is that we have real enemies in that region. Remember that al-Qaida attacked us first and traces of this group have shown up in Iraq. As you may have noticed , they attacked in Scotland, London and Spain.

Of course it is a struggle to develop a democracy. That is a most worthy goal and if we are successful, and the peace-loving element of the Iraqi people are successful, the entire world will be a better place for hopefully the next 50 years.

We seem to forget that our own American Revolution took many years to at last win freedom. It was not done overnight and certainly should have more mention than a paragraph or two in a history book.

Those who cannot see the dangers in bailing out of Iraq are not realizing that we would only be postponing disaster.

Any U.S. president would see this radical Islamic situation as it really is. The danger lies not in our own government and our attempts to provide a better life for decent people caught in war-torn lands, but in the Middle East radicals.

The war can be won. Difficult? Obviously. Impossible? No.

Eileen Schenck, Las Vegas