This is in reply to the story titles “Iraqi People fighting For Their Dignity” by guest editorialist Garda Ghista.

First off the infrastructure of Iraq was in a horrible condition before the war started thanks to Saddam Hussein. If you think Baghdad was in bad shape, it was a modern day paradise compared to Shiite population centers in other parts of the country.

Perhaps if the author is so concerned with the day to day post-war rigors of the Iraqi people she should instead lay her blame at the feet of Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party for two reasons; first off for the horrible condition the infrastructure was in prior to the war, and for not complying with the U.N. inspectors in the first place. The condition of Iraq solely rests with Saddam Hussein, the Baath party, and now the bands of foreign islamic fundamentalist terrorists who’s number one priority in Iraq is to keep the infrastructure disabled, keep the nation from being fully rebuilt, and to wage a guerilla war against U.S. forces there.

There were connections between Saddam and 9-11. Mohammad Atta was seen in Prague I believe meeting with Iraqi Intelligence officers, and in the North Eastern part of Iraq our special forces uncovered terrorist training camps. There is also a Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group in that region that prior to the war had joined forces with Saddam in fighting the Kurds. This fundamentalist group is known to have Al Qaeda ties.

I seriously question the authors numbers regarding the Iraqi’s killed, or are part of that twenty thousand killed number including Iraqi soldiers? I have yet to hear anything about the U.S. forces cutting off the water supply, or stopping basic goods from coming in to Iraq. That is a very unsubstantiated claim made on the author’s part that I find extremely difficult to believe. As a former Army Infantry Officer I’m familiar with how we are trained to conduct operations such as in Iraq and cutting off the water supply to a civillian population is simply not part of our modis operandi. We go out of our way to protect non-combatants and civillians and cutting off the water supply to non-combatants is simply something we would not do.

Something your author conviently does not mention is the fact that in most of Iraq day to day life is returning to normal. There are a few holdout areas such as parts of Baghdad, and the Sunni Triangle where we are still fighting. The conflict in Iraq has now become one waged between U.S. forces and foreign Islamic fundamentalist terrorists who have flocked to that nation because so much is on the line now for them. If Iraq can be rebuilt and turned in to a modern and democratic state then it will be a hard blow against Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. Look at who is there fighting against our troops, islamic fundamentalist types from Saudia Arabia, Chechnya, Syria, Jordan, etc. You’re not seeing many Iraqi’s involved in this guerilla conflict. Its being waged by outsiders who have come to Iraq to keep it from being rebuilt as a modern democratic state, to fight Americans, and to ensure that once the Americans are gone Iraq will become a Taliban Afghanistan version 2.0.

Lastly, Iraqi’s are not fighting for their freedom, they don’t have to, we already gave it to them.

Derek Weimer dweimer@fuse.net Post-Bachelor Degree student Education