General consensus is: Get out of Iraq

Re “Report falls on wary ears,” Sept. 12

Gen. David H. Petraeus admitted he cannot say that what we are doing in Iraq is helping our own country to be more secure. He indicates that our presence in Iraq is for another purpose. What is that purpose?

If we are killing people, including our own sons and daughters, for anything other than defending our country, the only ethical thing to do is to get out now.

Willow Hale

Burbank

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Petraeus almost sounded like President Bush on Tuesday: Just give us a little more time, like a year.

How many more American men and women, soldiers and civilian contractors, need to die before our administration gets it?

Let’s get a hard plan to get out in an orderly fashion. So what if we give the fanatics our timetable? Please get a definite plan and timetable to get out.

Barry S. Erbsen

Studio City

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Anyone who reads the newspapers knows that few objectives have been met in this war. In fact, the objectives keep shifting. And we all know our “decider” fires anyone who won’t parrot his views and hires someone more obedient, so Petraeus’ report is irrelevant.

An overwhelming majority of Americans and Iraqis want the U.S. troops to leave Iraq immediately. It’s way past time to end the madness. Why don’t the politicians get it?

Fred Sokolow

Santa Monica

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Good news: Bush and Petraeus are hoping to reduce U.S. troops in Iraq to the old pre-surge levels by next summer.

Is that progress?

Eric Parish

Vista, Calif.