Letter: Defeat in Iraq is simply not an option

Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

On the Las Vegas Sun's commentary pages on Sept. 14 there was a column by Tom Teepen, a column void of facts. He seems to have forgotten that many Democratic congressmen, including Hillary Clinton, voted for the war as well as the majority of Republicans.

He thinks Bush should work with Democrats or Iraq won't work. How can Bush work with Democrats when they continually undermine the war effort and want to pull out the troops, and when Harry Reid says that the war is lost?

When MoveOn.org calls Gen. David Petraeus a traitor and there is only a handful of Democrats denouncing those vile people, it seems that they agree. All you hear from the Democrats is criticism and nothing constructive. They continually undermine the war effort and want to pull the troops out in defeat. Name calling seems to be in vogue.

Tom Teepen also says the surge is not working.

There were mistakes made in Iraq, as happens in all wars, but they have been corrected and the prognosis is good.

By all evidence, and from many who have been to Iraq, including some Democrats, the surge is working. We have a chance of coming out victors against a brutal enemy who has no concept of decency, an enemy who will kill women and children and cut off the heads of their prisoners. These are the al-Qaida who started a war by killing nearly 3,000 of our citizens. Are we to forget them?

As General MacArthur once said, "There is no substitute for victory." To run away in defeat would create unbelievable problems for Iraq and the whole region as well as the U.S. and Europe. The harm to our prestige would be devastating.

Gerard LaBossiere, Mesquite