: re: Graft Hobbles Iraq’s Military in Fighting ISIS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 2:01 PM
Subject: re: Graft Hobbles Iraq’s Military in Fighting ISIS
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the editor:

     Syria and Iraq were invented in 1916 by Mark Sykes and George Picot without regard to cultural cohesion. They were held together by repressive governments and--like Yugoslavia--fell apart when the fist was relaxed. If the Iraqi military is the only avenue through which the U.S. will send arms we shouldn't send a single bullet. We wasted years and lives propping up an illegitimate puppet government in  South Vietnam. If we are to play any role in the war there, let it be as arsenal and ally to free Kurdistan, not as an ineffectual puppet master in Baghdad.
Barry Haskell Levine

1142 Brown Ave
Lafayette, CA 94549
510 447 0126