Letter: Bush is wrong about what’s needed in Iraq

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

The approval rating for President Bush in the U.S. is 23 percent because U.S. citizens are fed up with his "war" in Iraq and his ineffectual leadership. This man does not realize that because of his blunder in Iraq, the good reputation our country had in the world after 9/11 is now in the toilet.

Other countries look at us and laugh.

Bush and his fiasco in Iraq have made al-Qaida stronger and emboldened it and helped in its recruitment of other crazies to its cause, while we are hung up deciding what to do next in Iraq.

The report on Iraq that was recently delivered said that of 18 benchmarks for progress in Iraq, eight were unsatisfactory. To me this means we have failed and are making zero progress in Iraq. Yet Bush says he saw eight satisfactory reports as "a cause for optimism."

The Iraqi people themselves want the United States to leave. Our presence there has made their daily lives dangerous and insecure. But Bush says we'll stay the course because "it is necessary work."

On television every day I see the same things. Our troops patrol l ing the streets in Iraq, then one of those improvised bombs goes off, killing our troops or maiming them. Even the so called Green Zone has been targeted. Why are our troops patrolling the streets to their deaths "protecting" a country that doesn't even want us there?

What is our strategy? Where is our strategy? Why is Bush so blind that he can't see any of this? We need someone to step up and stop this insanity quick, because Bush and his cronies sure the heck don't want to stop it.

Wilson J. Matos, Las Vegas