Letter: Leave Iraq and spend money on other things

Wednesday, July 11, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

I agree with letter writer Teresa Crawford ("Timing of troop surge is dangerous," July 9) that the Iraq "surge" is a bad idea, and that our troops should be withdrawn as soon as possible. I also agree with Crawford that our troop death rate of 3.5 per day, not to mention the injuries, is unacceptable. However, there are also moral reasons for a pullout.

No one in Iraq was responsible for the attacks of 9/11. Our government lied to us to cover for a war to control Iraq's oil reserves so that a few favored international oil companies could prosper. Some argue that our troop withdrawal would precipitate a blood bath, but the majority of civilian deaths have been caused by the occupation forces , and the death rate continues to get worse.

A recent article by professor Michael Swartz of Stony Brook University uses the 2006 Lancet report to draw what appear to be valid conclusions. In the first three years of the war, twice as many Iraqi civilians died as were killed by Saddam Hussein in 24 years.

The death rate of Iraqi civilians caused by the military occupation in 2006 was at least 10,000 per month or more than 300 per day. In 2006 our troops operated about 1,000 patrols per day. The "surge" has increased that number to 5,000.

We have no numbers on the increased deaths caused by the "surge." The media tend to focus only on such things as car bombings, which are the cause of only 13 percent of all the deaths in Iraq.

Yes, it's time to bring the troops home, and if we wish to become that great country we keep saying we are, it's time to start spending our tax dollars for education, health care and cooperative efforts instead of pumping money into machines and projects that slaughter people for profit.

Jerry Bitts, Las Vegas