Departing U.S. Ambassador Warns Against Quick Withdrawal From Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/middleeast/23iraq.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=ryan%20crocker%20&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Subject: re: Departing U.S. Ambassador Warns Against Quick Withdrawal From Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Even as he publicly endorsed a withdrawal from Iraq, president  Bush continued to back Ryan Crocker and his plan for an indefinite U.S. presence there. For two years now we have been arming and empowering sectarian forces. These groups have no interest in ceding power to a peaceful central government. If we were to withdraw precipitately today, there would be bloody civil war. If we were to stay fifty years and the withdraw, there will be bloody civil war. What could justify the American deaths in that interim?

Barry Levine