On Jan 1, Joan Thomas’s Herald letter referenced a previous letter from Sharon Pontier regarding the financial fiasco in Middle East Wars, specifically the 18-year war in Afghanistan costing 2 trillion dollars.

I’ve been to the Middle East on many occasions and it appears that these wars will continue monotonically with thousands of people losing their lives. During the past few days we have witnessed demonstrations at the American embassies in Baghdad and Tehran (Teheran) emanating from the bombing and killing of several civilian Iraqis and an Iranian official ordered by President Trump. This action was taken following the death of an alleged American contractor. Was he really a contractor? A precarious situation has now been created. The Iraqi Parliament just voted for all foreign troops to leave the country.

Day after day we are listening to the antagonism towards Iran, which is very scary and could precipitate additional atrocities where thousands of people could lose their lives. The present Iraqi war, which has lasted for about 17 years and cost countless American and Iraqi lives was initiated by Republican George W. Bush who lied to the American people by falsely claiming that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Unfortunately, wars and deaths of Americans and other nationalities will continue monotonically while a character like Trump occupies the White House whose logic and mentality is questioned by millions except right wing extremists like perennial writer to the New Jersey Herald, John McDonough.

President Trump needs to go! As Joan Thomas enunciates, lives and money, not wars, should be used to ameliorate the plight of Americans who need assistance in a myriad of situations. Additionally, peace with Iran and others is of the essence, which could come with the removal of Trump.

Harry Dunleavy, Augusta