Letter: Iraq occupation is waste of time, money, lives

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

Some recent letters to the editor criticize Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for stating that the war in Iraq is lost. Of course, it's not really a war, and it cannot be won or lost.

The U.S. Army is more like a foreign police force attempting to bring about an end to crime and violence. Instead of saying the war is lost, maybe a more accurate statement is, "Our police action is not winnable."

There is no shame in such a statement, and it certainly is not an insult to our soldiers. This is no different than saying the drug war in the United States is obviously not winnable.

But what is clear is that Sen. Reid's statement is not defeatism. He is not inciting our enemies. If anything, our continuing presence in Iraq incites our enemies.

The truth is, the longer we stay in Iraq, the worse the sectarian violence becomes. More U.S. soldiers die. More Iraqis die. More Muslims join the terrorist ranks. We'd all like to achieve victory, but no one can even define what that would be.

I'm sorry we have messed up their country. I'm sorry that the violence may grow even worse when we leave. But our efforts over the past four years conclusively demonstrate that there is nothing we can do about that.

Albert G. Marquis, Las Vegas