The article “Army wants more Arab Americans to serve their country”, with Brigadier General Anthony A. (Tony) Cucolo III, Chief of Public Affairs for the U.S. Army, in last week’s issue, was not convincing enough as to why more Arab Americans should serve their country by enlisting in the army to serve in Iraq.

I don’t question the army’s need of Arab Americans to join to work in positions to help them avoid possible misunderstandings that might lead to dangerous exchanges between U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. What I question is why we as a nation and our leaders have failed to come clean with the fact that we initiated what is an unjustifiable war in Iraq to begin with and that we seem to using 9/11 to continue expanding this “War on Terror” elsewhere. Haven’t we learned yet that Iraq’s problems and the Middle East region’s problems cannot and should not be dealt with for the most part militarily but should be dealt with diplomatically?

Our over-reliance on military solutions for Iraq and the wider region is just another part of our present administration’s ineptness. Common sense should tell us that what Iraq needs is to be freed from occupation first and foremost, so that the Iraqi people can freely determine their own destiny. And a comprehensive all-inclusive political solution needs to be found which will have to include the region’s nations with which our nation has political and ideological differences.

As well, I personally don’t see the parallel between putting one’s life on the line by serving in Iraq to defending our freedoms here at home. When were the Iraqi people(or even the brutal dictator Saddam) ever a threat to our freedoms here in the U.S.? And why is it that the Iraqi civilians as a whole are the ones who have had to pay the price with their lives and livelihoods for our so-called freedoms?

I don’t believe that we can justify defending our freedoms militarily thousands of miles away; while at the same time undermining the Iraqi people’s freedoms to live safe and free from sanctions, preemptive wars, invasions, and occupation.

Marion MourtadaDearborn Hts. MI