To the editor:

Iraq has never threatened the United States. Whereas there was no threat or evidence of weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. invaded anyway. Impetus? Obviously oil. Baghdad is now turning out to be a center of anti-U.S. activity by the Arab world. Several U.S. soldiers are killed daily. The recent death of Ayatollah Mohamed Bagin al-Hakim, with resulting anti-U.S. demonstrations, was accompanied by the Ayatollah’s brother Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim calling for the complete withdrawal from Iraq of U.S. and “Coalition” troops.

Indeed, since the Bush administration is proven ineffective in the invasion, creating anti-U.S. rage throughout the region, it is best we withdraw before the situation becomes even worse. It’s not worth the oil, which we have not needed the past dozen years, not worth the loss of our soldiers and not worth the additional billions to the national debt.

THERE IS NO REASON FOR THE WEST TO IMPOSE ITS CULTURE INTO THE MIDDLE EAST. Let us simply withdraw everything from Iraq, before making more enemies of the Arabs. Let the citizens of Iraq rebuild their own country.

Bunker Clark,

Lawrence