Clarify Iraq Mission in Coming Election

I thought I would share letters to the editor from The New York Times, for today's post.

Interesting Comments...

1. “In Election Push, Bush Faults Talk of Iraq Pullout” (front page, Aug. 22) quotes President Bush as saying at a news conference: “These are challenging times, and 1. they’re difficult times, and they’re straining the psyche of our country.’’

Straining the psyche of the country? Does this president have any concept of reality?

The country’s psyche is disgusted with the war in Iraq. Even the generals charged with waging war and winning the peace are privately saying that civil war is now a fact of life.

The puppet government is ineffective, the police force is a disaster, and there is virtually no infrastructure left to support the economy.

I hope that Mr. Bush gets his wish that “we clarify the different points of view’’ in the November elections. This is a failed president and a failed policy. Let’s heed the Democrats and begin an orderly pullout of American troops before more are lost or physically and emotionally wounded.

2.Reading accounts of President Bush’s news conference, I was struck by his repeated phrase regarding withdrawal from Iraq: “before the job is done.” Most Americans would want a definition of “the job.”

If by “job” Mr. Bush means a stable democracy in Iraq, peace between Sunnis and Shiites, secure borders and elimination of terrorists, and secure oil fields, isn’t he exercising wishful thinking of the unattainable?

3.President Bush creates conditions that contribute to an increase in the threat of terrorist activity against Americans, then faults those who favor changing those conditions, claiming that they create a more dangerous world. Talk about circuitous reasoning.