Civilians to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/world/middleeast/19withdrawal.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 9:24 AM
Subject: re: Civilians to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If we mean to replace the U.S. military presence in Iraq with the presence of a militarized U.S. Diplomatic Corp in Iraq, we're peddling a charade that no one will believe.  The American electorate repudiated George W. Bush's policies not because the Americans in Iraq were in uniform, but because Americans were dying where we had no compelling national interest. Draping new uniforms--or no uniforms--on the American bodies in Iraq will diminish the credibility of our Diplomatic Corps, but it won't satisfy anyone who is waiting for the day we bring our boys home.

Barry Levine