Iraq

AS A ARMY Reserve vet for six years, I can understand the need for the United States to police the world. But to spend billions on the war in Iraq is a definite waste of dollars. Mideasterners have been killing each other for more than 10,000 years. If the money our government is spending could be given to every U.S. citizen, and it would equal more than $1,000 for all 325 million Americans! Lawrence S. La Mantia, Philadelphia

AS THE SLIMY attacks against his military record and heroism intensify, Sen. John Kerry may have fallen into a trap smartly set by the right-wing - looking dumber on the war in Iraq than George W. Bush. President Bush, on the campaign trail, has asked Kerry if he would have invaded Iraq knowing what the country knows now: that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Kerry, perhaps in a fit of misplaced machismo, said yes, effectively blurring the distinction between the senator and the president over the wisdom of the war. That's not the view of many Americans.

IN JOHN Bruhns' "The Anti-war Phonies," he asserts, "If any candidate wants my vote, they first and foremost need to convince me that they will end the war in Iraq. " Hey, Bruhns, check the newswires. President Bush is ending the war in Iraq, no thanks to you. The surge is working. Peace is coming to Iraq. Vote peace. Vote Republican. Raoul Deming Chester Springs

THE OP-ED "The truth about Iraq" by Sen. Kerry and Patrick Murphy illustrates the real issue we face on Iraq. The question most Americans desperately want answered is, "What now?" While Kerry and Murphy offer specific ideas, the Bush administration, Rep. Fitzpatrick and countless other Republican leaders and candidates offer no new ideas, instead bombarding us with their tired "stay the course" mantra. Connell Boyle Blue Bell

RE ERIK Raske's Jan. 23 letter: My letter was not a direct comparison of Iraq to Philadelphia. It was an application of the left's rationale on Iraq on a problem closer to home and highlights the absurdity of the leftist position. Of course it would be silly to give up the fight against street crime just because of a high murder rate or because a particular crime-fighting strategy is not working. The fight against crime is a long, difficult process that has its ups and downs.

THE homicide rate in Philadelphia was astronomical last year, making comparisons of Philly and Iraq almost plausible. Yet your paper prints opinions almost daily that contain leftist rants about how horrible President Bush is. Why not write something about Mayor Street and the lack of leadership he has provided? He made time for photo-ops with drug dealers, but can't do anything about the murder rate in the city. William Davis Wallingford

Iraq is to hand over to the Red Cross more than 20 journalists missing since Sunday and up to 2,000 Kuwaitis taken across the border before Baghdad withdrew from Kuwait, the Cable News Network reported today. The information was given to CNN in a live report from Kuwait by an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He said the Red Cross was taking medical supplies into Iraq's second- largest city of Basra and would bring out the journalists and Kuwaitis, probably tomorrow.

PRESIDENT Bush has brainwashed the American public about Iraq. He has lied about weapons of mass destruction. He has not captured Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden. As commander in chief, he has not shown any grief for our brave and fearless men and women who are dying in a war he said was over. He will, however, write a check for $87 billion to help Iraq. Iraq is more important to him than any American, and he is showing you 87 billion reasons why. Sadeek Green Philadelphia An interesting experiment that can be done at home: Turn the volume all the way down on your TV the next time President Bush is speaking live.

RE ARLEN SPECTER and the war: On Feb. 6, Sen. Specter joined with all but two Senate Republicans to block any debate on the nonbinding Iraq war resolution. As of this writing, Feb. 9, 14 more service members died in Iraq: 14 dead Americans in 3 days. I can understand that it's embarrassing and politically risky to admit you've been wrong, especially when you've sent over 3,000 American soldiers to their deaths on the basis of WMD intelligence that the Pentagon inspector general now describes as "of dubious quality or reliability.

QUESTIONS for President Bush: If Saudi Arabia is found to be secretly supporting our enemies, what are you going to do, punish Iraq? If they are found to have the blood of thousands of Twin Tower victims on their hands, are you going to punish Iraq? If you find the Saudis guilty of harboring our enemies, are you going to punish Iraq? If you find out that Saudi Arabia set up phony charities to give money to terrorists who only want to kill Americans, are you going to punish Iraq?

BAGHDAD - A pair of bombings killed four people Sunday in attacks targeting Iraq's security forces, officials said, while the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad maintained it will continue training Iraqi police despite cutbacks to the program. The first bomb exploded near a security patrol in the western city of Ramadi, killing one police officer and wounding seven people. Hours later, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint in the Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad, killing three people - including two police officers - and wounding nine more.

BAGHDAD - Bombs ripped through 10 Iraqi cities Thursday, killing at least 30 people and shattering a month of relative calm. Minority lawmakers decried the violence as a tragic but inevitable result of the Shiite-led government's attempts to dominate Iraqi politics. Despite simmering sectarian tensions, a lull in deadly attacks since mid-March led many to hope that Iraq had turned a corner and away from widespread violence. That proved overly optimistic as at least 14 bombs and mortar shells exploded across 10 cities over three hours in the morning.

BAGHDAD - Now that U.S. forces are gone, Iraq's ruling Shiites are moving quickly to keep the country's two Muslim sects separate - and unequal. Sunnis are locked out of key jobs at universities and in government, their leaders banned from cabinet meetings or even marked as fugitives. Sunnis cannot get help finding the bodies of loved ones killed in the war. And Shiite banners are everywhere in Baghdad. With the Americans no longer here to play peacemakers and Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab nations moving to isolate Iraq, the development could lead to an effective breakup of the country.

BAGHDAD - Fifty people died and more than 200 were wounded Tuesday in Iraq in a series of bombings and small-arms attacks that heightened worries about the safety of Arab leaders scheduled to attend a summit meeting here March 29. The attacks took place in seven of Iraq's 18 provinces, a reminder that three months after the last U.S. troops withdrew, security remains a concern in much of the country. In the wake of the attacks, Iraqi officials announced that they would declare an official holiday in Baghdad starting Sunday and running through April 1 in an effort to limit vehicular traffic on the days surrounding the Arab League summit - the first ever to be held in the Iraqi capital.

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan is not Iraq, U.S. officials have been fond of saying from the first days of Barack Obama's presidency. The difference, they said, was that one war Obama inherited, in Afghanistan, was worth fighting, while the other, in Iraq, was best ended as quickly as possible. Now, Afghanistan has turned into Iraq: an inconclusive slog in which the United States cannot always tell enemy from friend. And like Iraq, Obama has concluded that Afghanistan is best put to rest.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, most of them children, and burning their bodies was trained as a sniper and recently suffered a head injury in Iraq, U.S. officials said Monday. The name of the suspect, a married, 38-year-old father of two, has not been released. Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta said that he may face capital charges and that the United States must resist pressure from Washington and Kabul to change course in Afghanistan because of anti-American outrage over the shooting.

A Pennsylvania Army National Guard unit that spent almost a year in combat in Iraq was honored Sunday with the presentation of a Meritorious Unit Commendation. Several dozen members of Charlie Company of the 103d Engineer Battalion, based at an armory in West Philadelphia, turned out for the award ceremony at Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, site of a 1777 battle in the Revolutionary War. Assigned to Forward Operating Base Summerall, near Beiji, Iraq, in 2004 and 2005, Charlie Company engineers were charged with protecting the main supply routes of north-central Iraq from terrorist bomb attacks.

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq - The quarrel at a Christian school was at first easily ignored by other students: a disagreement between a classmate and a teacher that could barely be heard. But it quickly escalated into gunfire Thursday in a murder-suicide marking the rare violent death of an American in Iraq's most peaceful region. Authorities in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah said Biyar Sarwar, 18, shot his gym teacher, U.S. citizen Jeremiah Small, before turning the gun on himself at a private English-speaking school.

WASHINGTON - It took almost 60 years for World War II veterans to get a monument in Washington. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened less than a decade after that war ended. Now with the Iraq war just over, and Afghanistan continuing, there are already plans to honor those veterans in a National Mall tribute in the works. It would not be a full-scale Iraq and Afghanistan war memorial. But the group that built the Vietnam memorial wall of names told the Associated Press it would expand the scope of a planned education center nearby to include service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.