Dear Editor: I am 34 years old and I happened to fight in the Iraq War from 2005-08. I believe that although Saddam Hussein was a "madman," the people of Iraq were better off under his regime than the subsequent chaos which followed the U.S. invasion in 2003-04. Sometimes, it takes a "strongman" or "dictator" to maintain order in a society which is less than "civilized" by western standards. This is why I oppose continuing efforts against so-called dictators like Bashar Al-Assad in Syria. While I prefer democracy, or even direct democracy, to dictatorship in any form, I do not presume to have the knowledge or power to dictate what would be best for foreign countries that have a different tradition and experience than the United States.

We should be humble in our foreign policy, and like George W. Bush indicated in 2000, we should refrain from engaging in "nation-building." We cannot impose democracy at the barrel of a gun, and many observers have wryly pointed out that we are hardly able to live up to democracy in our own country. I support Tulsi Gabbard in our current election because she is an Iraq War veteran, a member of the U.S. military, a woman of color, and she understands the cost of war better than any other candidate, including Bernie Sanders, whom I would regard as the most "woke" or "enlightened" candidate of all. It is high time that we try diplomacy rather than war, and divert resources from our "Department of Defense" (Department of War) to our State Department ("Department of Peace") instead.