Iraq war

Jim Dubik, the outstanding Army general quoted in your editorial, is of course correct that "the war is not over" (NCR, Feb. 8). Most thinking Americans long for an ending. What NCR and certain politicians seem to miss is that if we just pick up our marbles and go home, the war will still not be over. It will be over only for Americans--and that almost certainly only for a limited time. Instability breeds violence, and violence feeds on itself. We'll get an ending of sorts but it won't be a happy one, especially not for Iraqis and their neighbors.

We started the unjust war in Iraq for grossly insufficient reasons. We are responsible not only for the war but for its future consequences. We have sown the dragon's teeth, and it would be not only irresponsible but deeply immoral for us to just walk off and leave them, endlessly

fomenting violence. Yes, end the war, and end it with dispatch and justice. Get the best deal we can as quickly as may be, recognizing in advance that it will be far from perfect. But taking up Pilate's finger bowl is not the moral answer. It will not stop the war and will only make it more likely that we'll be back in the killing fields again, sooner rather than later.

DAVID A. APPLING

Morgan Hill, Calif.

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