Mounting U.S. deaths as we ‘stay the course’

Your Oct. 19 editorial, “Eyeing the exits,” states that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki “needs to keep Muqtada Sadr happy.” Why are our soldiers dying daily to support a government that placates Sadr? After all, wasn’t Sadr the cleric who had his insurgents fight our soldiers in graveyards near Fallouja earlier in the war? We need to pull out now and let Maliki deal with his own civil war.

THEODORA BELTSON

Beverly Hills

*

Members of the Bush administration like to use black-and-white slogans, simplifying complex issues and implying there is no other option except to “stay the course” in Iraq. “Stay the course” sounds tough and decisive, but for many of our troops, it means “stay, kill and try not to die.”

SEPTEMBER BOWMAN

Goleta, Calif.

*

Re “Troop Losses on Pace for 2-Year High,” Oct. 19

To continue to leave our soldiers in harm’s way -- in the midst of the civil conflict that is taking over Iraq, thanks to our unprovoked attack and oppressive occupation of the country -- will tear this country apart, as it is doing in Iraq. To continue to pay our tax dollars to corporations making huge profits to keep the occupation going is also destructive and will bring hardships down on Americans.

EDWARD A. WESTRICK

Los Angeles

*

So far this month, more than 70 Americans have been killed in Iraq. When are we going to get serious about this war? America is much too gentle with the insurgents. Our politicians seem to have forgotten the definition of war. We need to do what is necessary to win. War is not nice and shouldn’t be fought that way. Perhaps if we weren’t so nice to our enemies, the war would be shortened.

GENE GOODWEIN

Van Nuys

Accountability for,

advocacy of torture

Re “Torture and accountability,” Opinion, Oct. 17

It seems that Alan Dershowitz is still in favor of the rack and other forms of torture to find those mythical “ticking bombs.” Only now he’s complaining that when President Clinton suggested something similar, the media and public didn’t beat up on him. But Clinton pointed out that he didn’t know of any ticking bomb instances, and he was aware that errors had been made in deciding who was a suspect.

Dershowitz has not, to my knowledge, addressed what to do with innocent people who have been subjected to torture warrants. The real issue isn’t torture -- it’s accountability. Torture has occurred in U.S. military and intelligence operations worldwide. Dershowitz’s torture warrants and Bush’s latest detainee bill are both designed to procure one result: the immunization of the torturers for their acts.

DALE JENNINGS

Boulevard, Calif.

*

Dershowitz’s and Clinton’s call for laws authorizing torture are disgusting. The idea that somehow torture is fine as long as you get court authorization is an outrage. The methods of the Spanish Inquisition were authorized by the temporal and spiritual authorities of the time. That certainly did not make it right. Dershowitz and Clinton deserve the condemnation of all civilized people for what they are advocating.

CARL W. GOSS

Los Angeles