Vote for Seals to get out of Iraq

When I saw the "Shock and Awe" on TV during our invasion of Iraq, I was saddened by the thought that innocent civilians would be killed -- men, women and children.

That count is now reported as 1.2 million. And now that the deaths of our own brave and loyal troops exceeds 4,000, and nearly 30,000 have been wounded, many maimed for life, it's time to examine how we became involved in Iraq and why we are still there.

The "Downing Street Memo" shed some light on how the Iraq War began. It contained the minutes of a meeting held by Prime Minister Tony Blair with some of his senior ministers and advisers eight months before the invasion of Iraq.

It clearly stated that Bush wanted to depose Saddam Hussein by military force. But he knew Congress and the international community would not condone waging a war for the purpose of regime change.

Therefore, Bush and his administration planned to fabricate false information about Al Qaeda and WMDs in Iraq to extract an affirmative vote from Congress for an invasion, and to convince the United Nations to go along.

We may never know the real reason why the Bush-Cheney administration wanted get us mired down in Iraq for five years to date, instead of pursuing Al Qaeda where they really were and are, at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

This unwinnable war should be terminated on a realistic short term timetable. Occupation was never foreseen as an objective by our Congress or by the American people.

How do we communicate with Congress when our Representative Mark Kirk is not interested in discussing the Iraq War, or its downside, and insanity of it in public meetings?

I agree with Dan Seals that we need a responsible redeployment. We need a true Representative in Congress. The sane thing is to vote for Dan Seals.

George Rosenblit

Highland Park