Voters' Means to an End

“Seeking an Iraq Endgame” [September 1-8] outlined an excellent set of policy steps and conditions as recommendations for our next president to follow in Iraq. I would like to add my thoughts. Unanticipated events and consequences often follow war. Did we fully understand that Russia would take over Eastern Europe after World War II? Or did we really believe that the Berlin Wall would fall in 1989 after decades of the Cold War? Each event required great foreign-policy adjustments. Will our next president have to call an audible at the line of scrimmage in when the unexpected appears on the playing field? The odds are that he probably will have to do so. Because war and peace are not games, we must choose our next president at least partially on the basis of which candidate we believe will be the best at determining and managing our Iraq policy during those times when changes need to be made to ensure its success. The responsibility for doing so rests squarely on the shoulders of each of us as we prepare for our vote on November 4.

Milton E. Jorgensen
Winchester, Kan.