Letter: Who exactly is the enemy in the Iraq ‘war’?

Wednesday, May 9, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

What kind of cockamamie military action are the U.S. military forces operating in Iraq? Day after day, week after week, month after month I read where, "Private, corporal or lieutenant X were killed when his vehicle struck an explosive device." What kind of strategy is that?

We must have the worst generals in the history of warfare for the same thing to be happening repeatedly daily for years unless, of course, that military leadership is not allowed to lead because it is the politicians who are doing all the ordering. Politicians who have never been in the military and know nothing about being in combat. The orders are to the effect, "You are not allowed to win but must not lose."

This is not a war in Iraq but a police action. Vietnam was a war. A war has two opposing sides with the ultimate purpose of destroying the enemy or forcing an unconditional surrender. But in Iraq who is the enemy? Is it Sunni? Shiite? So-called insurgents?

Sen. Harry Reid was criticized for saying this "war" was lost. It isn't lost, it isn't won, it isn't anything recognizable by any military standards. We are trying to bring Christian or democratic standards to people who have hated one another for more than 1,000 years, but whose standards are not coming out of the Bible but out of the Quran and whose leaders must have read Sun-tzu's book on the "Art of War" because they are using the techniques and strategies described therein.

Finally, it was once said the sun never sets on the British empire. That is no longer true, but what is now true is that the sun never sets on American guns.

Jack Jurasky, Henderson