Mick:

The awesome brutalities on the side of Hussein and his loyal followers are legion, and in fact are the only reason I believe we should successfully complete the war we have begun and are now in up to our necks. I hate having a war, I hated to see it started, I think it was badly, badly handled. But I also think there is some good to be accomplished in uprooting the disastrous tyranny we are currently fighting, and I think we would be much worse off stopping now, even though I wish we could somehow erase the whole awful mess. But we are deep in the middle of a war. We could back away and betray those who have some hope of living without Saddam's tyranny on their necks. But for long term consequences, I am sorry to say, we would probably be worse off doing so than following through.

I am -- as you can probably tell -- deeply torn by the whole sorry mess. I can't really tell if I am being extremely naive to think that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel, or whether I would be incredibly naive to argue on behalf of immediuate withdrawal. Obviously, it is too late to protest the start of a war at this time.

My opinion, of course, weighs less than nothing, and I don't think I will voice it again.   I'd be interested, as always, to hear yours.

Thanks for your words,


A