Reader thinks it's time to exit Iraq

To the Editor: It’s beginning to look like the very best America can expect in Iraq is to leave a military dictatorship favorable to our interests — something like Pakistan. However, even this seems to be a long shot. At the moment the balance of military effectiveness seems to be in favor of sectarian militias with leaders like al Sadr. The Bush administration hasn’t had much luck establishing any institutions in Iraq, least of all those necessary for a democracy governed by law. The only Iraqi institution any administration representative has spoken of favorably lately is the army, and even there the praise is limited and conditional. Our military and the State Department have written off the Iraq police as corrupt and permeated with infiltrators loyal to one or another of the militias. The Saddam Hussein trial has shown that the Iraqi legal system is a joke. The billions put into the medical system have evaporated through corruption and poor management. Neither the Iraqis nor Americans can supply electric power to Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a days. In areas outside of Baghdad it’s less than that. The supply of clean water is sporadic. Sewer plants built with US taxpayer dollars have fallen into disrepair. There is no middle class to build or operate the infrastructure. Professionals and the educated are fleeing Iraq in droves. Jordan and Syria, the two main recipients of the brain drain, have no complaints whatsoever about the migration, since they’re getting the cream of the crop of Iraq’s educated, responsible and middle class population. These are the people Iraq needs to recover and to establish a society governed by law, a democracy that protects the rights of all of its citizens. They’re voting with their feet. It’s pretty clear now that Iraq is not going to get the kind of society the Bush Administration dreamed of when it launched its invasion. At this point, if America is lucky, it can somehow create a secular military powerful enough to keep Iraqi war lords and their militias in check. However, even if the U.S. military remains there for the next ten years, the odds are probably better that there will be one of the following: a sectarian state under Shia militia domination; a fractured Iraq threatening the peace and security of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Kuwait, each of whom is an American ally; or continued civil war until Iraq becomes an anarchy, like Afghanistan. The invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Not only that, it was a botched mistake. At some point the President has to realize that he must cut America’s losses in men, prestige and treasure, and terminate the Iraq adventure. We owe the Iraqis for what we have done to their country. We shouldn’t exacerbate the tragedy by prolonging it. Sooner or later, nature will take its course. It’s better to pull out now and stand by to help in any way we can to relieve the human suffering our meddling has produced. Michael G. Busche Sussex