Category | Op Ed

Letter to the Editor: Response to “In it to win it”

Published on April 3, 2007 by The Sentinel

Dear Editor:

“In it to win it,” proclaimed Daniel Burnett in his latest article. One
wonders what it is Burnett expects that we will win in Iraq. What,
even, is our mission? Saddam is dead; there were no WMDs; there is no
peace or stability in the country. The Iraqis don’t want us there, the
American people no longer want us there, and even 72 percent of our
troops, as of last year, don’t think they should be there. Every day
that we stay only creates more hostility and violence.

    It would be impossible, in such a limited space, to
dispute all of the inaccuracies contained within Burnett’s
article. The readers of the Sentinel, I am sure, are quite capable
of discerning the facts for themselves. A few points cannot go
unmentioned, though.

    First, it should be remembered that during the 80s,
when Saddam was committing his worst atrocities, he enjoyed the robust
aid of the U.S. government. In fact, when the infamous gassing of
Halabja Kurds was reported in 1988, Reagan at first tried to blame
Iran. There was no outrage then. When Hitler was killing
Jews, the U.S. never once bombed the concentration camps’ supply
lines. We ignored Rwanda, we are ignoring Darfur now, and we have
consistently ignored atrocities committed by “friendly dictators” in
all parts of the world.  But in Iraq, it is genocide we are
preventing?

    In the article, we are told that just because WMDs
haven’t been found doesn’t mean they don’t exist. We could say the same
about unicorns, but few serious scholars do. This “progress”
Burnett speaks of seems to be just as imaginary. Over 650,000 Iraqis
have died as a result of the war, food costs have increased by as much
as three times, unemployment is at 60 percent and child malnutrition
has doubled. Our own intelligence suggests that our presence there is
only creating more terrorists.

    It is a colonial, almost racist view to conclude
that Iraqis aren’t capable of creating their own government, that it is
our “white man’s burden“ to bring it to them. And it is
shortsighted to believe that our continued presence there will ever
bring about a legitimate government or any real peace.  Rather
than allotting more money to wage the war through 2009, [while
attaching a “non-binding” timetable for leaving Iraq by 2008] Congress
should instead be funding an immediate, unconditional withdrawal of our
troops. This is the best support package they could possibly
receive.

Eric Pierce,
Junior
History Education