Dear Senators Boxer and Feinstein:

I have written to you a number of times regarding the Iraq war, and now that Senator Feingold has introduced a resolution to bring our soldiers home by the end of the year, I have no choice but to write again. Whether this resolution is politically expedient or not, it is the right thing to do. 

The Iraq War has been the greatest foreign policy disaster since Vietnam, and perhaps the greatest in American history. Whether we were right to invade Iraq or not, we know now that the war was begun on false pretenses, namely that Iraq (a) had weapons of mass destruction and (b) was an ally of the September 11th terrorists. Regardless of who was responsible for these mistakes, the Iraqi people certainly knew that Saddam Hussein's regime (a) had no banned weapons to speak of, and (b) was obviously not in league with Al-Qaeda terrorists, who wished to overthrow Saddam. Since the Iraqi people knew the reasons for the invasion were untrue, our soldiers have been placed in the impossible situation of having to defend a mistake.

The Iraq War has had one positive effect: the removal of Saddam's terrible regime. However, even those Iraqis who welcomed us as liberators have now come to hate us because of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Regardless of who was responsible for this, the fact is that American soldiers were caught torturing innocent Iraqis at Saddam Hussein's most notorious prison. As the new Iraqi government has already been charged with corruption and human rights abuses, it doesn't make sense for our troops to stay in Iraq on behalf of a government that many Iraqis believe is no improvement over Saddam's.

Senator, I am past caring about elections and what's politically expedient. Our first responsibility is to the lives and well-being of our men and women in uniform. The invasion of Iraq was probably a lost cause from the beginning, as the people we tried to liberate knew our reasons for the invasion (the nonexistent WMD and al-Qaeda ties) were untrue. After Abu Ghraib, the occupation has certainly become a lost cause, because even pro-American Iraqis have come to hate the occupation. The Iraq War may not have always been a lost cause, but the occupation has made it one. 

Our pre-war objectives have been achieved. Iraq is free from weapons of mass destruction, there is a democratically elected government in place, and Saddam is in prison. Since there is nothing more we can do there, we must not stay and continue to spend American lives and money. Almost 2500 of our soldiers have died so far; there is no reason for any more to die.

Senator, we need our soldiers here to protect our nation; we also need them here to defend us against natural disasters. Please support Senator Feingold's amendment to bring our troops home alive.

Yours sincerely,

C. Colvin