New Haven Independent

Posted by: nfjanette | April 20, 2007 4:33 PM

Regarding the heartfelt commentary on deaths in Iraq: your heart is in the right place, but I believe your calculations and proposed explanations are misguided. The bombings that are killing most of the people over the past years in Iraq have little to do with the American/Allied presence, and much to do with Islamic sectarian violence. Such people are murderous thugs, and I'm glad every time an American soldier retires one of them when they are foolish enough to attack in the open. The only thing that kept them in line when Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was in power was his murderous actions against any that stepped out of line, especially the majority followers of Shi'ite Islam.

There have, of course, been tragic accidental killings of non-combatants in Iraq, and recently in Afganistan. We should train our soldiers as much as possible to avoid such situations, and we should try to make restitution whenever it occurs. In comparison to the previous numbers, though, the American soldiers that in your words are killing people they've never met (in what war does one meet the enemy before combat?) are responsible for a small fraction of current death toll.