U.S. troops should be at home, not in Iraq

Re “Soldiers Caught Between 2 Sides,” Feb. 28

Can you imagine our soldiers in Iraq dying for a cause that they no longer see is clear? All they can see is their desire to go home grow stronger each minute they’re out on the front line. What’s going on in Iraq are religious disputes and people revolting at the idea of having a democratic nation. That has nothing to do with the United States. What our soldiers are doing out there is watching violence occur between people and dying trying to prevent it. They are getting stuck in a fight between the Sunnis and Shiites and risking their lives trying to stay out of it. Their orders are to lay low, which isn’t an order you give to a soldier if we’re supposed to be in a war.

Our soldiers are in the middle of a civil war that they will never understand, and keeping them there endangers their lives when they could be home with their families, safe from a war that isn’t ours.

MELISSA IRAOLA

Chino Hills