Letters: The Real Legacy of the Iraq War

Connect With Us on Twitter

For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT.

Ross Douthat ("The Obama Era, Brought to You by the Iraq War," column, March 24) rewrites history when he says "the Bush administration's blunders" are attributed to "cluelessness." The Bush administration forced the invasion through Congress by way of fraud, deception and monstrous hubris.

Before the war, the memorandum about Saddam Hussein's trying to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger was proved a forgery. The doubts of intelligence experts were suppressed. Liberal lawmakers who voted for the war did so because they were lied to.

Barack Obama won the presidency because he had the wisdom to oppose that war and the courage to vote against it. Republicans continue to thwart the will of the people by gerrymandering House districts and blocking judicial appointments.

Is it possible that they have become so extreme because they fear being called to account for their actions, including being asked to contribute more in taxes to pay off the debts from the war?

RICHARD JANKO
Ann Arbor, Mich., March 24, 2013

To the Editor:

Ross Douthat's column doesn't begin to do justice to the results of the last administration's decisions.

For more than 60 years, the United States military has maintained a world order that benefited our collective interests as well as individual prosperity. The decision to invade Iraq and ensuing events have put an end to both the domestic political support and the international respect required for such a policy.

That legacy, now playing out in the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and the Pacific Rim, will long endure.

ERIC R. CAREY
Arlington, Va., March 25, 2013

To the Editor:

Ross Douthat's conclusion that reaction to the Iraqi catastrophe opened the door to the Obama period is probably correct. But the roots of American alienation from Republicans are perhaps deeper than a mere disgust at Donald Rumsfeld's "incompetence" or the collapse of George W. Bush's "foreign policy credibility."

Voter revulsion at the right is far more likely a result of the G.O.P.'s continuing (and incredible) insistence that the Iraqi catastrophe was necessary and actually turned out just fine, thank you very much.

To this day we endure the specter of an unapologetic Dick Cheney insisting that torture was justified, and that if he had the chance to relive that period, he would change nothing.

CARL MEZOFF
Stamford, Conn., March 24, 2013

To the Editor:

Ross Douthat says "the Iraq war's consequences for our politics" may be "the war's most lasting legacy." The real lasting legacy resides with the families who lost loved ones and with the wounded and their families.

MEL MINTHORN
Wilton, Conn., March 24, 2013

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Letters: The Real Legacy of the Iraq War

Dengan url

http://opinimasyarakota.blogspot.com/2013/03/letters-real-legacy-of-iraq-war.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Letters: The Real Legacy of the Iraq War

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Letters: The Real Legacy of the Iraq War

sebagai sumbernya