Letter: GOP rhetoric aside, it’s time to leave Iraq

Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007 | 6:59 a.m.

In reply to Gerard LaBossiere's Sept. 23 letter, "Defeat in Iraq is simply not an option," which criticized a column by Tom Teepen.

Mr. LaBossiere sure got all of the Republican talking points right , such as: the surge is working; these are the al-Qaida who started the war by killing almost 3,000 of our citizens; there is no substitute for victory; to run away in defeat will create unbelievable problems for Iraq; and the harm to our prestige would be devastating.

Mr. LaBossiere fails to realize that even during the surge we are losing between 70 and 80 of our soldiers and Marines per month. And, according to the Government Accountability Office, the Iraqis have not completed 11 of the 18 benchmarks required, and any success of the surge is temporary at best. He indicates that al-Qaida started the war in Iraq when actually they started the war in Afghanistan. There truly is no substitute for victory, but when fighting in someone else's civil war at some point you must cut your losses, particularly when the country that you are fighting for shows no inclination to support the cause.

The dollars that we are spending in Iraq can be put to better use, such as providing health care for children, a bill that our current president is about to veto. And finally, it was George W. Bush who damaged our prestige when he lodged a preemptive strike against Iraq and decided to become occupiers of the country.

It is time to bring our troops home.

Thomas A. Pope, Las Vegas