OUR FREEDOM AND THE IRAQ WAR

Here's a few snippits from the opinion page of The Oregonian.

IRAQ WAR

Sunday, October 02, 2005 The Oregonian

'Our freedom' isn't tied to Iraq war built on lies

Supporters of the war in Iraq say that our soldiers are over there fighting "for our freedom." There is no evidence for that view.

In what way are they fighting for our freedom? Iraq has never been a threat to our freedom.

The war in Iraq was started by our invasion of Iraq, not by Iraq's invasion of the United States. Supporters of the war are deluded, and they need to look at the real reasons we are killing people in a foreign country.

Sept. 11, 2001, had no connection to Iraq until we invaded Iraq. President Bush took us to war on false evidence knowingly presented as truth, not on bad intelligence from misinformed CIA agents.

I am tired of seeing so-called patriots repeating the president's lies. It is time for the truth to unmask the deceivers. Let's not wait 20 years as we did with Vietnam. If people really supported our troops, they would stop lying to them and us and bring them home.

ANCIL NANCE Southwest Portland

Possible solutions to Iraq war continue to be elusive, divisive

Let us now leave Iraq because our presence there is a magnet and motivating force for al-Qaida recruits, thus reducing our safety.

And let us now leave Iraq because more than 1,900 of our best and bravest military men and women have tragically and needlessly lost their lives for a war we did not need to wage, a war that, according to eyewitness Paul O'Neill [former secretary of the Treasury under President Bush], Bush and his National Security Council decided to wage on Feb. 1, 2001, fully seven months before 9/11.

MARSHALL McCOMB Huntington

Let the Iraqis decide

President Bush says that troops must stay in Iraq to defend America (from what, I'd like to know). I see millions running for their lives from the ravaged Gulf Coast and see a valid threat to our country.

Let's let the Iraqi people decide if they want us to stay. If the majority vote "no," then let's pull out. This war is proving too costly. How about a war on hurricanes? To me that's a real threat.

GARY THOGERSON Gresham

Bush as compulsive gambler

President Bush's decision to stay the course in Iraq is similar in many ways to a compulsive gambler who has been on a losing streak but insists on staying in the game, knowing that a big win will surely come.

The gambler stays in the game despite the odds against winning. Bush keeps us in Iraq despite knowing the cards are stacked against a positive result.

The big difference between the gambler and President Bush is that the gambler may ruin his own life, but the president is gambling other people's lives and the financial future of an entire nation.

JIM RANDLE Salem

Return Saddam to power

Democrats are having a terrible time offering an alternative to the quagmire the Bush administration has created in Iraq because it is assumed that what has been done cannot be undone.

I submit that we acknowledge the entire war, having been initiated on false premises, was a huge mistake, and that we return the country to the government that was in power before we so foolishly deposed it.

Saddam Hussein is in our custody. The one time since Iraq's creation by British mandate in World War I that it has functioned as a unified political entity was under his leadership. Let's reinstate him and let him get on with the rebuilding of his country as he did so well after the first Gulf War.

Bad things would happen to many Iraqis with his return, but it would never approach the nightmare that any citizen of that land lives with today.

MICHAEL R. CAPPER Cannon Beach

Women and war

War is always tragic. I am saddened that our country must create "heroes" and "villains" to frame our misguided involvement in Iraq.

Jessica Lynch was not a hero and Pfc. Lynndie England is not a monster. Both young soldiers were undertrained and thus ill-prepared to handle the unique horrors of guerrilla war.

We should not attempt to cleanse our bloody hands by using these women. It won't work, and it is patently unfair.

STEVEN G. MATSUMOTO Southwest Portland