A SOLDIER WRITES

Allam and Lasseter fail to mention the number of Iraqis who concede in polls that while they may not trust the provisional authority with the same conviction that they would their sheiks, imams and ayatollahs, they do feel that if the Americans left now there would be a real possibility of civil war.

Another contrast between the British control of Iraq and the U.S. experience now is that we have not resorted to the colonial practice of installing a minority group in power. For the first time in Iraq, ethnic makeup will reflect the makeup of the new Iraqi government and the historically oppressed Shia will not be sidelined.

Those militants lobbing grenades and blowing up cars, killing mostly Iraqi civilians, can in no way be compared to the Iraqi resistance in the 1920s. Then, all Iraqis applauded their ''martyrdom.'' Now, many Iraqis refuse to believe that the bombers are Iraqi but rather foreign fighters intent on destroying progress.

I am an American soldier of Arab descent and Muslim faith. I can understand the limitations, expectations and frustrations that many of my uniformed compatriots cannot.

To leave Iraq now to the forces of sectarianism or fanatacism, or to allow it to fall into anarchy, would be wrong. Not only would it be a slap in the face to each of us risking our lives here, but even more of an insult to the Iraqis who risk assassination for speaking to the media or going to their civil-service jobs as they try to mend their nation.

''Somewhere between wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.'' -- Sufi Muslim poet Jelauddin Rumi.

SGT. MOHAMMED OMAR MASRY
Baghdad International Airport, Iraq