Think of Iraq as a patient

As a physician, I have been faced with situations in which a patient appeared feeling and looking quite sick. The signs of sickness were unmistakable, but the variety of studies done failed to yield a diagnosis. But my clinical judgment (translate: common sense) told me that the patient was sick, and that turned out to be correct.Now the question is whether the Iraq war is in a sick stage. Anyone with a sliver of common sense must acknowledge that events there are abysmal. The patient is very sick.If we do the tests, listen to President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and selected military personnel, we come away with the feeling that the patient isn't really very sick and, in fact, is on the road to recovery. We're on the verge of an absurdity.One question that is strictly avoided is, does the occupation make things worse rather than better? Would the insurgency begin to erode if we left?It is hard to believe that our leaders would grieve at the presumed chaos that would follow our departure. In terms of lives lost, we stood by silently while 800,000 were slaughtered in Rwanda, and we're standing by while 300,000 are dying off in Darfur.It seems evident that what we would lose would be control of the region (translate: oil). The mentality of our current leadership leads only to endless war, and mocking those who want to leave with the rhetoric “cut and run” is only a disgusting political ploy. Dr Joseph Linsk, Atlantic City Published in the Atlantic City Press July 7, 2006