MB Civic

To the Editor:

Your headline article states the obvious: if United States troops pull out of Iraq, chaos will follow. It should be obvious that such chaos will follow whether American troops are pulled out sooner or later.

Let’s face facts: The dictator Saddam Hussein kept Iraq under control through sheer brutality, and he kept Al Qaeda out of the country completely. The United States entered into war against Iraq irrationally, fed by lies and gross exaggerations, not the least of which was the implicit claim that Iraq had something to do with 9/11.

Whatever is entered into irrationally cannot be exited rationally. The debate of whether to leave now or later tries to bring rationality into a picture that has been utterly irrational from the start.

The United States had no business going to war in Iraq. The United States completely destabilized the country by overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

Stabilization will occur on Iraqi terms whenever the American military departs, and it will be bloody. The only difference between leaving now or later is how many Americans will be killed, wounded or psychologically destroyed for life; how much money the United States wastes in Iraq rather than spending it on critically needed infrastructure here; and how many more enemies we make by remaining there.

Bruce Barnbaum
Granite Falls, Wash., May 27, 2007