The empire is over
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Re “The $190-billion question,” Opinion, Oct. 14
No! This is not a wise expenditure. We will need this money to pay reparations to whomever is going to pick up the pieces in Iraq after we leave. The conceit that the United States has some legitimate status in Iraq is erroneous. We have no more legal standing there than the British and French had at the Suez Canal, the Wehrmacht had in Warsaw or the Russians had in Budapest. The Anglo-American invasion of 2003 was an illegal act of war, and the continued presence of U.S. forces is an ongoing war crime.
Our failure to understand this fact is the ignorance of empire and will only lead us next year to be asking similar questions about our presence in Iran or God knows where. The empire is over; let us come home and rebuild the republic.
Joseph Gius
Los Angeles
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