Letter: White House botched aftermath of invasion

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 | 1:51 a.m.

That the surge is a success proves that our generals, who suggested before the start of the Iraq war in 2003 that 300,000 troops would be needed to stabilize Iraq, were right. Of course, our leaders turned a deaf ear to those generals, only to force them into early retirement or assign them to other duties.

I'm a Republican and have been my whole life. I am not happy with the handling of this war by our president and military leaders of the past. It was a very successful campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party. However, our leaders never planned for the aftermath.

How could we not see that 140,000 troops were not enough to handle a population of 26 million people? Hopefully the surge holds with the additional 30,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad. This difference might lead to a safe exit for us and bring peace to Iraq.

I always felt the United States and Britain had Saddam in check with daily fights over the no-fly zone. There should never have been an invasion, but because there was one we should have listened to our generals and supplied what was needed.

Sam Pizzo, Henderson