I’m writing in response to the editorial published Jan. 8 concerning Iraq. Let me preface by… I’m writing in response to the editorial published Jan. 8 concerning Iraq. Let me preface by saying I don’t support Bush. I will be the happiest man in Pittsburgh if he choked on a pretzel tomorrow. That said, we absolutely cannot leave Iraq in its current state. The catch phrase of the year seems to be cut our losses, but the losses of human life would be unimaginably higher if we leave the country as unstable as it is now (What? There are human lives other than Americans? No way!). We would see ethnic cleansing on a scale exponentially more heinous than losing a few thousand U.S. troops every year, with the distinct possibility of a violent spillover into the rest of the already charged region. Bush needs to be deposed. A new – preferably more intelligent – president needs to take over the war; and said president needs to show the world that we as Americans will fix what we as Americans ruined. You can argue about the motivation for war all day long; but no matter the justification, the knee jerk reaction of a troop withdrawal from Iraq would, in my not so humble opinion, lead to the most dire conflict since World War II.

Chris Cappetta [email protected]