Iraq

A Maryland soldier died Thursday in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense said. Sgt. John F. Burner III, 32, of Baltimore, who was based at Fort Gordon, Ga., died as a result of a medical condition in Iskandariya, Iraq, said fort spokesman Buz Yarnell. He was not killed in combat. Sergeant Burner's unit, the 63rd Signal Battalion (Expeditionary), 35th Signal Brigade, deployed Aug. 21, Yarnell said. He said Sergeant Burner was survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 6 and 2, who live in Grovetown, Ga., near the base.

Dorothy Lee says it will be good to get her grandson back home from Iraq. But the Havre de Grace woman will believe it when she sees him. In the months since Pfc. Christopher Hine left for Contingency Operating Base Adder in southern Iraq, Lee has heard conflicting information about when the Maryland National Guard member will return. To her, the announcement Friday by President Barack Obama that all U.S. troops are to be withdrawn by the end of the year was just another potentially erroneous report.

It is great that the General Assembly has devised a program to spend $1 billion to rebuild the Baltimore City schools as related in your editorial ("Building for the future," March 20). Fifteen percent of Americans are on food stamps, which costs about $70 billion annually. Yet in the last 10 years, we spent over $700 billion for the Iraq war. In other words, we spent enough on fighting in Iraq to rebuild the schools of 700 cities throughout the United States or finance our food stamp program for 10 years.

As I read the two recent articles in the Sun about terrible upheaval in Iraq ("More violence feared in Iraq as 3 blasts kill 9," Aug. 16, and "Bombings, shootings kill about 70 across Iraq," Aug. 17), my saddened Naval veteran's heart beat out the thought that the U.S. citizens should again be reminded of President Barack Obama's self-centered political ploy as he withdrew our troops from Iraq at the end of 2011. Unfortunately, now without the troops' assistance and protection, Iraq soon became a center of civil strife and therefore was unable to develop into the first democracy in the Arab Middle East, which indeed would have served as an example for the other surrounding turbulent nations, and it also eliminated Iraq as a base for the U.S. and allied forces from which they could have operated more efficiently in the protection of our interests and responsibilities in controlling, and hopefully eliminating, the radical terrorists, includingal-Qaidaand the Taliban, who have openly declared many times that their main objective in life was to annihilate every freedom loving individual from the face of the earth.

The trouble I have with all the deficit hawks is not that they are wrong about the need for austerity concerning public finances. But I do have a problem with their short memories. It seems not so long ago we opened our vault of blood and treasure to pursue a pointless, psychopathic invasion of Iraq. These payments keep coming due, and so far as I can tell we got nothing in return but infamy from that fiasco. When you finance that level of futile brutality, who is to say that other worthy societal aspirations such as universal health care and finding alternate renewable energy sources should be done on the cheap?

I know being a Republican ideologue in a blue state like Maryland takes some fortitude. But upon reading some of Brian Murphy's few specific proposals as to why he should have been the Republican gubernatorial nominee instead of Bob Ehrlich, I have to question why he would want to lead a government in the U.S.A. ( "The Maryland GOP can win," Nov. 29.) His most specific proposals require a country where firearms are widespread, where abortion is illegal and where immigration is not a problem.

On my morning drive to work recently, I heard on the radio that Gov. Martin O'Malley had just returned from Iraq. I turned up the dial to hear what the governor had to say about how our young soldiers were fairing. All that followed was commentary from the radio host that some folks were questioning the timing of his visit. There was no report about what our soldiers were doing, when they would come home, their living conditions, their morale -- nothing about anything other than whether the governor had misspent his valuable time.

Ten years have passed since the United States invaded Iraq, a decision that almost everyone now ranks as one of the worst foreign policy blunders of our time. Why "almost"? Former President George W. Bush and his top aides still maintain that the invasion was a good idea, even though the premise on which the war was based - that Saddam Hussein had acquired weapons of mass destruction - proved false, and even though the ensuing war claimed the lives of more than 4,500 Americans and an estimated 127,000 Iraqis.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is weighing a rematch against Gov. Martin O'Malley, criticized the governor for traveling to Iraq during the legislative session. Ehrlich made the comments Saturday during his weekly radio show on WBAL-AM, saying he would not have made the same decision. O'Malley is in Baghdad visiting Maryland-based soldiers and members of the Maryland National Guard. O'Malley, who arrived in Iraq on Friday morning on a trip arranged by the Pentagon, is traveling with Iowa Gov. Chet Culver.

Eight children from Iraq and five of their coaches will come to Maryland to learn the ins and outs of baseball at Camden Yards and the Ripken Academy in Aberdeen next week, Ripken Baseball announced today. Ripken Baseball, a marketing company that represents former Oriole and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., is bringing the three boys and five girls -- ages 15 to 17 -- to Maryland, Washington and Virginia as part of a U.S. State Department visitors program. While in Maryland, the children will watch the Orioles play the Mariners May 11, tour Camden Yards and take a baseball clinic taught by Seattle Mariners designated hitter and All-Star Ken Griffey Jr. May 11 at Camden yards.