To the editor:

What if 200,000 Americans – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Hindus, Native Americans – gathered in Iraq to secure the peace, offered themselves as hostages, sacrificed themselves as human shields outside mosques so Muslims could worship in peace and outside shops so they could buy and sell, offered aid and comfort to all of Iraq’s people, showed Iraqis that not all Americans carry weapons and wear body armor or were bureaucrats with bottomless pockets, demonstrated that people can succeed where governments fail, helped rebuild neighborhoods, provided medical assistance?

What if we just stood next to the Iraqis until they got on their feet? And then left them alone. What if we showed them that we can rise above our religions and be human together? What if we showed them that we are more than they think we are?

David Thiel,

Lawrence