Don’t Back-Burner
War Concerns

Reading Mr. Kendall’s essay in last week’s Herald on our frightening financial predicament, I was disturbed by his seeming to make light of the issue of our invasion and disastrous occupation of Iraq. It seems to me that who did or did not vote for this historical disaster is a crucial issue in the competition for our next presidency.

Back in 2002 Barack Obama said the following in a speech in Chicago: "I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than the best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda."

We now know that the Bush Administration lied to us regarding weapons of mass destruction and Al Qaeda involvement. It killed and is killing thousands of Iraqis and Americans for its geopolitical aim to control a small oil-bearing country in the heart of the Muslim world, a country sharing borders with six Muslim countries, 650 miles from Israel and even closer to six ex-Soviet countries with unstable governments in the Caspian Sea region, several of these countries containing oil and coal.

Ernest Wright

Randolph

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