Garner May Help, but Iraq’s Future Depends on Iraqis

Retired Gen. Jay Garner, in charge of efforts to rebuild Iraq, said, “I am here to help you rebuild your country and turn your government into one that serves you” (“U.S. Military Captures Iraqi Arms Monitor,” April 28).

One wonders when and under what circumstances someone will do the same for us here at home: repair our crumbling bridges and highways, refurbish our decrepit schools and hospitals, feed our hungry children and, above all, provide us with the ex-general’s promise to the Iraqis of “an open and honest government.”

Sidney Ellis

Sherman Oaks

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Despite the U.S. forces’ superb military performance in Iraq, President Bush may not realize that he faces failure. Our success depends on Iraqi cooperation in building a pro-U.S. democracy. This means that we never were and never will be the masters of Iraq. Victory in Iraq? Only if the angry protesters in the streets of Baghdad allow it.

Curtis T. Wilson

Visalia

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Middle East consensus has America responsible for the looting, riot and general pillage by the Iraqis after Saddam Hussein was ousted, for civilian injures from the exploding munition cache ignited by Iraqis and for casualties in the fierce war to free Iraq (“Deadly Explosion Angers Neighborhood,” April 27).

But the Iraqis are guilty of the mayhem after the war, and casualties during the war were carefully limited. The Middle East is strange, indeed.

Leonard Greiner

Santa Ana

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Your April 26 editorial on rebuilding schools in Iraq fairly outlined the challenges of a system obviously impoverished and monopolized by tyranny, but you failed to mention one huge obstacle to bringing education fully back to Iraq: the remnants of Hussein’s regime. How will the U.S. Agency for International Development determine who (teachers, administration) was a loyal supporter of Hussein and who was not?

Rumor? Innuendo? The psychic abilities of those hiring? Obviously, only lengthy interrogations would suffice to weed out the cohorts. And this goes for all branches of government, where Garner has stated that he’s even willing to rehire former government workers. There has been no authentic overthrow of Iraq’s system, only the veneer of change. And all this at our own schools’ expense.

Dain Olsen

Los Angeles

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If our government wants to avoid a theocracy in Iraq it should strongly support the rights of Iraqi women.

Cathy LaScola

Santa Monica

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Re “Baghdad ‘Mayor’ Is Arrested,” April 29:

Let me see if I have this right. U.S. soldiers/invaders, engaged in an illegal and immoral war waged by our unelected “president,” have forcibly removed Baghdad’s self-proclaimed mayor because he had “grabbed power” and was “exercising authority which was not his.”

This is some kind of joke, right? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry anymore.

Scott L. Phillips

Norwalk