Editor, Daily Nexus,

Courtney Stevens (“Liberty Belle: Democrats Fail to Create Iraq Strategy,” Daily Nexus, Jan. 31) once again attempts to shift the responsibility for a failed war to critics of the war instead of berating the people who actually botched it. What Courtney fails to realize is that the right to political dissent is a basic liberty in any free society. Our elected representatives have not only the right to voice their objections, but an obligation to do so. If anything, withholding one’s opinions for the sake of creating the appearance of a “united front” – in other words, good PR – is gross negligence. The war is not a failure because of the “liberal media,” Democrats or God-hating gay hippie pinkos. It failed because Iraq – a country the size of California with a population of twenty-six million people – simply cannot be controlled by the paltry force that the administration is willing to dedicate.

The whole situation of conservatives blaming the liberals for not fixing their own mistakes would be almost amusing if it did not involve the death and injury of over fifty thousand Americans and tens, hundreds even, of thousands more Iraqis. Does Stevens truly believe that a troop “surge” of twenty thousand will change the tide of the war? That is merely returning troop levels to what we once had. It did not work then and why would it work now, especially since violence in Iraq has escalated steadily? When the Republican strategy on the war is to keep slamming our heads against the wall, the Democratic plan of not abusing the cranium is hardly worse.