No more war and 'sad state of affairs'

Now that five years has gone by in Iraq (36 percent longer than U.S. involvement in World War II), and by official count, 4,000 U.S. troops have perished on the battlefield, it is time we take stock of this sorry situation.

Principally, what we have accomplished in Iraq is create chaos and inflict massive strife, suffering, deprivation, displacement and death on people who had no idea or means of harming us -- and whose leader had been effectively boxed in for 12 years by the international community. Their "crime" was residing in an oil-rich nation adjacent to the oil-poor one that we were told had something to do with our being attacked and year and half earlier.

If we care at all about bringing closure to this sad state of affairs, there are at least two things we can do as citizens:

• Support the presidential bid of our U.S. senator, Barack Obama, who is the only one of the three remaining viable candidates who opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iran from the beginning.

• For those who live in the 10th congressional district, support Dan Seals, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Both John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and incumbent Congressman Mark Kirk, are longtime military men who have trouble seeing anything other than military options as being the most definitive and desirable. McCain envisions and advocates a controlling U.S. military presence in Iraq for generations.

Let us not forget that military man George Washington had the grace and wisdom to step down from public office in large part due to his not wanting to create the impression to the rest of the world that the military in any way held sway over our democracy.

Jonathan Neumark

Libertyville