For the past year and a half, we’ve been fighting in Iraq. And for what? To destroy the threat of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction? What weapons of mass destruction?

After Sept. 11, President Bush declared war on Osama bin Laden and terrorists. We pursued Osama bin Laden into the mountains of Afghanistan, then only to declare war on Saddam Hussein.

There have been more than 1,356 coalition deaths and 1,210 American deaths. The allied deaths include 74 Britons, seven Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, one Hungarian, 19 Italians, 13 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards and nine Ukrainians. At least 8,956 American soldiers have been wounded, and the end of the war is nowhere in sight. Iraq doesn’t have a government yet and car bombings and abductions of engineers, architects and aid workers are frequent occurrences.

We are no safer now than we were on Sept. 11. Furthermore, this war is costing us billions of dollars and countless lives. We need to find a way to end this war peacefully.

Mikael Heikkinen