I can’t believe it, but I finally agree with Donald Rumsfeld. The United States must stay in Iraq until the country can rule itself.

We were led into war on false promises. It’s clear now (Downing Street letters, Paul O’Neill’s book, Richard Clarke’s testimony), that the war was never really about weapons of mass destruction. It was and is about oil.

Since World War I, when Winston Churchill recognized that oil-fueled Navy ships were superior to coal-fired ones, the developed countries have tried to manage the Middle East to keep oil prices low and supply abundant.

This latest dust-up in Iraq was all about the Bush administration deciding that removal of Saddam Hussein would be superior to managing him – the policy favored by our (former) allies. Now that we’ve invaded the country and created the turmoil we see daily, we have a responsibility to right our wrongs.

Secretary Rumsfeld may be correct. We can’t leave, and we don’t know how long we have to stay.

If we leave, chances are we will leave behind a situation primed to destabilize the Middle East.

Iran, Kuwait and Saudia Arabia – all major oil-producing nations – will fall victim to political unrest threatening U.S. and world oil supplies. The turmoil will result in thousands of more deaths.

We need to get out of Iraq, but we have a responsibility now that is of our own making.

We should never have been there in the first place.

Denis Bergeron, Auburn

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