The trouble with Iraq

Re “Iraq’s No. 1 problem,” Opinion, Jan. 28

Bing West and Max Boot should be ashamed. Iraq’s No. 1 problem has been, and will continue to be, that the U.S. illegally and unnecessarily invaded it. To claim anything else is cowardly.

Edward Saade

Poway

How serendipitous that West and Boot’s rosy Op-Ed article on Iraq came out the same day that five more of our fine young soldiers were killed in Mosul. This insane exercise in “nation building” and “spreading democracy” has not been worth one American life, much less thousands.

Sure, Sunnis have joined forces with the American troops. It is a matter of survival. They are hopelessly outnumbered by their Shiite countrymen. We have divided the country into three factions, and they are poised at each other’s throats.

We have destroyed a relatively secular government where women had rights and replaced it with an Iran-friendly Islamist regime where Sharia law will reign supreme. The bloodshed has not abated.

It is just a matter of time. In a civilization that is 10,000 years old, time is something they have plenty of.

Steve Eastin

Toluca Lake