Letter to the Editor

Published March 25, 2008

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March 4th’s “ Sipping the Koolaid. Very Slowly.” contained several factual errors and I am disappointed that The Water Tower would run a piece without first verifying its accuracy.

Firstly, Barack Obama does NOT favor immediate withdrawal from Iraq (this happens to be one of several reasons why I do not support him, but this letter isn’t about me.) His campaign website states that he would “have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months” and his policy adviser Samantha Power describes this as a “best case scenario” that he will not necessarily hold himself to as president.

Secondly, the article misrepresents the history of American involvement in Afghanistan. There was not an American military presence in Afghanistan prior to the invasion in 2001. The United States did, however, provide weapons, training and money to the mujahideen who were resisting the soviet-backed communist government. I suppose it might have been accurate to say that “USSR getting out equals Taliban takes over,” but Soviet involvement in Afghanistan led to the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The Soviets couldn’t have stayed there forever. I hope there isn’t a parallel there. History does have a tendency to repeat itself. Just some food for thought.

I hope that in the future, the Water Tower will make a better effort to ensure that your incisive criticism is factually based.

Respectfully,
Ben Dube

Editor’s Note: A wide range of reports indicate that the literal removal of America’s physical presence in Iraq (people, tanks, construction equipment, etc) will take between one and three years. This makes Obama’s 16-month withdrawal estimate about as immediate as humanly possible. Regarding American involvement in Afghanistan, we’ll let our readers decide on their own if “weapons, training, and money” provisions count as involvement.

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