The war in Iraq should be left to the Iraqis

Re “Using Olive Branch, Cheney Lashes Foes,” Nov. 22

Americans are asking the wrong government for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. We need to ask the Iraqi government what its timetable is for having a viable army. Like it or not, Iraq controls the future of the American military involvement in that country. Of course, one determining factor is equipment and vehicles for Iraqi soldiers, which seem to be in short supply; we hear that they still drive around in pickup trucks instead of tanks and armored vehicles.

The solution to that is easy: start training their drivers and mechanics on American equipment, stock up the U.S. supply depots with spare parts and ammunition and then hand over the keys to the equipment and the depots as we leave. Think of the jobs we can create in this country restocking our own military.

DAN KRONSTADT

Shadow Hills

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There is not one good reason why one more man or woman in the service of the United States should be wounded or killed in Iraq. It is a civil war now. Again it is Sunni against Shiite. The people who read in this country are not blind. It is a civil war and we are in the middle of it. We will all pay for this.

CHRIS AUGUSTINE

Los Angeles

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Just when I thought the work of Michael Ramirez could not get any more offensive, he inks the cartoon printed in the Nov. 20 Times. The depiction of Democrats as a ticking roadside bomb, poised to kill U.S. servicemen, is sickening and highly irresponsible.

I was happy to read that Ramirez is leaving The Times, as the editorial page should be a forum only for objective opinion and not the tripe of a bootlicking Bush administration shill like Ramirez.

JOHN CARLOS THOMPSON

San Diego