Make Iraqis responsible

U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly wrote in a letter:

"What would also make a difference is something I have long advocated: a series of military and social benchmarks that must be met to assess accountability for our mission in Iraq and place the responsibility for success on the Iraqi Government, an idea that the Administration is beginning to grasp. These benchmarks should include measuring the support and cooperation of the Iraqi Government with the United States; measuring the Iraqi Government's re-investment in its troops and physical infrastructure; steps to rid the Iraqi Government of corruption; and actions taken to attempt to see that all Iraqis live together in tolerance and peace, regardless of their political and religious views.

"The attainment of these benchmarks should be the clear mission for our soldiers."

Several things about his statement concern me.

The first sentence joins two ideas that should be unrelated. Only the United States can be accountable for our mission in Iraq. The Iraqi government cannot be made responsible for the success of our mission. They must certainly be held accountable, but not for our mission. We have little control over them.

The benchmarks he lists are all things the Iraqi government must do. We cannot do these for them. We can provide help, but the Iraqi government must be willing to do these things.

He says the attainment of these benchmarks should be our soldiers' mission. How can U.S. soldiers be held responsible for these benchmarks?

How can these things be the military's mission?

The U.S. is not responsible for the success of the Iraqi government. The Iraqi people are responsible.

Gallegly's plan seems to be to set vague benchmarks only Iraqis can implement (with no apparent impact if not met), and then make the U.S. military responsible. Surely, that isn't what he meant.

— Lynne Nuibe, Camarillo

How long do we give Iraq?

Re: Michael Pringer's July 19 letter, "Democrats hope Iraq fails":

Pringer mentions "preliminary negative news and ignoring the positive." How many years have we been in Iraq? How many more years do we wait, and how many more need to perish before Pringer admits failure? It has been four years, so do we wait five, 10 or more? Was Pringer also one of the advocates of continuing the war in Vietnam?

They seem to be doing quite well after we left. U.S. businesses are having great success working over there, and thousands of Americans vacation there now.

Just think, we could still have been fighting the war in Vietnam to defeat communism.

— George Pohoski, Camarillo

Bring military home

Where is the thinking of our leadership? In the beginning of the Iraq conflict, it was the original plan to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Neither Congress nor the American people ever agreed to get involved in a revolution. As soon as Saddam was dethroned, our job was done.

All of those Arab Muslim tribes have been fighting each other for centuries. The questions in my mind are: Did we attack Iraq for oil? Did we attack Iraq because our present president wanted revenge for Saddam trying to assassinate his father?

Our government's constitutional function is the security of its people both at home and abroad. Today, average Americans are not secure. Rather, we're raped of our money through taxation to support this revolution. It's time we demand our legislators stand up and vote to preserve the people rather than the will of the lobbyists and minorities that support all the insanity.

We should support our military by bringing them home and supply those fighting for their freedom with the necessary equipment to get the job done. It should be obvious that the war in Iraq will never be won by our military because we're fighting ghosts with no uniforms.

We don't know who the enemy is. The terrorists do not value life and even hide bombs in baby's milk, killing themselves at the same time. Teenage terrorist are willing to sacrifice their lives to kill Americans for the love of Allah. We should tell Iraq that we are not sacrificing any more of our people to die for them.

With the trillions of dollars that this Iraq mess is costing, we could feed the millions all over the world who are starving, assist those who need education to help themselves and treat those who need medical attention.

— E. Raymond Capt, Camarillo

Liberal diatribe'

Re: John M. Sherwood's July 17 commentary, "Our turn to fight unjust laws":

Sherwood should stay with preaching the Lord's word and stay away from insulting America and Americans with his liberal diatribe about how nice it would be if we let everyone in with no restrictions, etc. Thank you, but no.

— Joe Laraneta, Westlake Village