Editor,
For New Mexico's District 1 Representative, Republican Heather Wilson, to continue to defend the case for the invasion of Iraq tells one where her priorities and loyalties lie - with the Republican Party. As we all know, we were specifically told that the justification for unilaterally invading Iraq was that Iraq had massive amounts of weapons of mass destruction and
Saddam Hussein had direct ties to the al Qaeda terrorist organization.
However, since the occupation of Iraq, neither weapons of mass destruction nor direct ties between Hussein and al Qaeda have been
found. This being the case, the invasion of Iraq was and continues to be unjustified. Rep. Wilson is aware that our own Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories played a role in the 2001 analysis of whether Saddam Hussein was attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. She also
knows that the Sandia and Los Alamos analysts were part of a team of
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Department of Energy nuclear experts who concluded that the highstrength aluminum tubes that Iraq wanted to buy were probably not
intended for nuclear weapons manufacturing but for use in nonnuclear
battlefield rockets. In spite of this information, President Bush told the U.N. Security Council that Iraq had made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon, and Rep. Wilson continues to support and defend the case for the unjustified invasion of Iraq. Talk about distorting the truth - and representatives who will support lies at any cost for their own enrichment. I realize that even though our invasion was unjustified, the damage caused by this administration is done, and we cannot withdraw
our troops without an appropriate solution. I have heard those who
say we cannot pull out our troops until the Iraqi government is stabilized.
This is not true. Since our invasion of Iraq has been determined to be unjustified and the Saddam regime has been removed, we should turn
over the complete control for the reconstruction and safety of Iraq
to the United Nations. This will allow us to pull back all our troops, except the U.S. military complement deemed necessary by the United Nations. There is no reason why this cannot be done immediately- within the next 90 days. This will not only keep our soldiers out of harm's way, but it will also drastically reduce our share of the reconstruction efforts. It is past time that the diehard Republican congressmen and the Bush administration admit that the invasion of Iraq proved to be unjustified and take appropriate corrective action immediately. The time for talk is past. It is time to take action.
Nahum Castillo
Daily Lobo reader
