Letter to the Editor: Bring them home

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
I’ve sat on my hands and kept quiet long enough (going on four years now) mostly because I feared voicing my opinion was unpatriotic for we’ve been reminded on television non-stop that any thoughts other than those of the Bush administration are not acceptable. Remember the phrase “Your either with us or against us.”
But after viewing several TV programs this past week about the additional troops needed for Iraq and the death and destruction each and every day I no longer feel the need to stay silent. I urge each and every one of you to do the same.
As a mother of a soldier presently serving in Iraq, I must voice my opinion on what errors I feel have been made in sending our troops to battle a civil war in the Middle East, a war that has been going on for several hundred years. We’re asking these people to join our democracy; this from an administration that is eroding the very same democracy that we as Americans have lived our whole lives to protect and I might add respect. Our elected officials seem to care more about their upcoming re-elections and gaining additional power and financial gain than they do in the people who elected them and keep making the mistake of re-electing them over and over again. These very politicians have to listen to the people instead of profit for their indifference to our wishes only enhances the will of other countries to resist the democracy we’re trying to impose on them.
Very few Americans are suffering the anxiety that the families of our military are facing. We cry at every death and every man and woman maimed by this senseless war and now we are asked again to send an additional 22,000 plus into this abyss to satisfy the ego of one man and his administration so he can build on his legacy. Yes, that’s what it’s all about folks; his legacy.
I know there are those who oppose this theory, but what else can it be, for his arrogance has been displayed in every word, movement and action. We need to bring our troops home now. We impeached one president for far less than the damage that this one has inflicted on the American way of life. Every death counts, every injury counts, whether it be permanent or minor.
Somewhere, today, in the United States a family is grieving for a lost loved one, whether it is a husband, son, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, or another close family member. We need to show them that their loved one counted and not another life should be given for this ill-begotten war. We can’t justify 3000 plus deaths by adding several hundred more!
Mr. Bush is asking for patience in this latest surge of our troops when he lacked the very patience he is seeking from the American people by sending the troops to war before the weapons inspectors finished their job.
Our troops were ill equipped with no plan or strategy for their return. Do you know that members of the National Guard and Reserves only have two years of hospitalization after they return from duty? I found this information from a bulletin on the wall at the Veterans Administration. How can we ask them to leave their families, their jobs, their small children, the safety of their home and only give them two years medical care after they return from a war that some volunteered for and some who had signed up years ago have again been re-called to duty to fight for the rights of another country? At the same time why can we not assure them that they will be taken care of should an unforeseen illness or wartime injury flare up five, 10 or 20 years down the road and render them helpless?
I’m asking you to join me, along with my family, to bring all of our brave men and women home to the safety of their families. I have recently written to the House Majority Leader expressing my views. Many more lives are at stake.
Write or call your Congressmen, your Senators (even those of other states and districts). Express your displeasure or uneasiness regarding this war. This is no longer Mr. Bush’s little struggle for recognition. We all need to get serious about what is happening to our Country. Bring all our troops home now and bring Peace to their families.