Time to get out

Reading the latest issue of Newsweek magazine brought tears to my eyes. The entire magazine consists of letters home from soldiers who shortly later died in combat in Iraq. My heart breaks for the children and husbands and wives who will never again see their loved ones. How in the world did we ever let ourselves get into this mess, and why can't we get out?

More than 3,000 American soldiers have been killed, and another 20,000 were wounded and crippled. Add to this God only knows how many Iraqis killed and more than $500 billion spent. Can you imagine the good that could be done with this kind of money in reducing our dependence on oil or in providing health care? President Bush stubbornly refuses to admit he made any mistakes in launching this war, and he continues to claim we are "winning," whatever that means. He continues to call those we are fighting "terrorists" and to link them to al-Qaida and to 9/11, but to do so is deceitful.

Virtually all of the Muslims in the Middle East hate us, and there are certainly terrorists in Iraq fighting against us and trying to overthrow the government we have set up there. In fact, however, the principal combatants are Sunnis and Shia who are engaged in a civil war. Bush says that to leave Iraq today would create chaos. What in the world does he think is going on there now? ...

Mike Browne

Moscow