Letter to the Editor

Author: [no author name found]

To the Editor:

I could not agree more with Phil Aroneanu's article [We cannot forget the destruction, Sept. 29, 2005] that voicing opposition to a government you feel is acting wrongly is an act of patriotism. However, I think we all ought to be more careful with the current situation in Iraq.

As I packed for my year abroad in my downtown D.C. apartment, six different friends contacted me to tell me they would be "with me in spirit" when I marched on Saturday, Sept. 24 at the anti-war protest. What every one of these people assumed was that as a very active and relatively liberal Democrat, I would be marching.

But I believe that to withdraw troops while the government is unstable and perhaps not supported by a majority of the country, to withdraw while looting and murder are commonplace, to withdraw without proper preparation is as wrong as beginning an unjustified war in the first place - perhaps worse.

This is not simply a cut-and-dry question of "occupation is wrong." Unnecessary deaths are happening, and we have to work constantly on an exit strategy. But as much as I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with Colin Powell, I do think an unfocused outcry of "leave" is not the kind of responsible solution we owe to the Iraqi people and our own soldiers.

Sincerely,

Willa Brown '07