Reasons for trouble in Iraq

I believe it helps to occasionally get my opinions in the local newspaper. while I can print what I want in my blogs, The Wichita Eagle reaches a lot more people than I can reach. If I get a reaction to it, that is even better. So I was glad to get my letter printed in The Wichita Eagle:

The newly liberated land in Iraq is turning out to be a hell hole for all those who did anything to cooperate with the ISIS government before it fell. People have been given ridiculously long prison terms and they are being executed for simply having had a job that in any way helped the ISIS officials who ruled over that part of Iraq for the last few years.

There has been a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) that criticized Iraq and the autonomous Kurdish authorities over mass trials of suspected ISIS group militants.

It would be easy to just claim that this is Iraq and this is what passes, in that culture, for normal behavior. But the truth is that it was the U.S. armed forces that trained the Iraqi troops and led their armies to remove ISIS from all Iraq territory.

The Iraq Army is a part of the government that the U.S. built from the ground floor up. In other words this is an extension of the U.S. government and armed forces.

I keep hearing that we must thank our military people for defending this country and our freedom. I hope our freedom does not rely on such repressive regimes.

STEVE OTTO, MAIZE