Why doesn't anybody call the war in Iraq a "religious war," which is what it really is? Before Saddam was deposed, Iraq was a secular state. Saddam made sure that no religious zealots became powerful enough to depose him. He gassed the Kurds and he shot the hell out of the Shia and Osama Bin Laden didn't have a prayer of establishing a base in Iraq. This is par for the course for any dictator. The key to a peaceful settlement in Iraq is to guarantee the Sunnis that the new constitution will provide for a separation of church and state. Once this is done, the only troops we have to maintain in Iraq will be for the purpose of preventing any religious group from attempting to impose their will on the general population. As for Saddam, we should use him to pacify the Sunnis and reduce the insurgency. We have learned from several Arab nations that Saddam was willing to leave Iraq in order to prevent the United States from invading it. Certainly Saddam is a bad guy, but we have dealt with scumbags before. When we signed the peace with Japan, we did not dismantle their government or industry. Instead, we sent General MacArthur to make sure that the terms of the peace agreement were carried out. When we defeated Hitler, we did not dismantle the German infrastructure, and many former Nazis were allowed to remain in government in order to keep the country going. We maintained a certain number of troops there to make sure this happened. Even in Panama, when we displaced Noriega, we kept the government in place and eventually turned the canal over to them. Remember that the Nuremberg trials took place after the peace with Germany was settled. What is behind our hurry to bring Saddam to trial? We made three great mistakes. The first was going to war in Iraq - we can't take that one back. The second was when ambassador Paul Bremer dismantled the Baath government after Saddam was out of the picture. The third is putting Saddam on trial instead of using him to diffuse the insurgency, making it possible for a peaceful and democratic Iraq. Unless the American media publishes these truths and disemenates them widely, we cannot expect the present administration to change its course toward a more peaceful solution instead of continuing the endless battle against the insurgency, a hopeless task.

Signed,

Harry Boranian ("Grandpa Harry")

typed by Monica :)