the times

The President's Veterans Day Attack (7 Letters)



Published: November 15, 2005

To the Editor:

Re "Bush Contends Partisan Critics Hurt War Effort" (front page, Nov. 12):

While the president is attacking the Democrats for questioning him, our troops in Iraq are stretched to the breaking point.

We read about young service members dying on their third tour of duty, the wounded struggling to return to civilian life and others suffering the collapse of their marriages.

If the administration truly believes that we must "stay the course," then we need a draft to provide the troops to do the job. It is unconscionable to talk about shared sacrifice when a tiny fraction of the population is doing all the sacrificing.

It seems to me that it is too late to get it right in Iraq. Our young people in uniform are struggling to do the honorable thing for their country, but their commander in chief seems incapable of doing the honorable thing for them. They have done their share and should get to come home.

Anne L. Walsh
New Canaan, Conn., Nov. 12, 2005
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To the Editor:

President Bush can lash out at critics of his war policies all he wants in an attempt to shore up his approval ratings, but in a war of choice fought by an all-volunteer military, the only opinion poll that ultimately matters is how many people enlist.

Peter Lowy
Westwood, Mass., Nov. 12, 2005
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To the Editor:

You report that President Bush "continued his effort to cast Iraq as part of a broader struggle against a virulent strain of radical Islam."

The sad fact is that the "virulent strain of radical Islam" had been suppressed in Iraq. It was the United States' invasion that not only unleashed it, but also opened the door to Al Qaeda operations in Iraq.

While the world may be better off without Saddam Hussein in power, the invasion of Iraq has intensified terrorism, not diminished it.

Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, Afghanistan remains the world's top heroin producer, and Iraq has become a major training ground for terrorists.

Larry Edwards
San Diego, Calif., Nov. 12, 2005
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To the Editor:

Being critical of the process that got us into Iraq isn't about getting the United States out of Iraq, it's about getting the Bush administration out of the White House.

Even if we grant the president's analysis of bin Ladenism, does this mean that we must tolerate the breathtaking incompetence his administration has shown in responding to it?

F. X. Flinn
Quechee, Vt., Nov. 12, 2005
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To the Editor:

Despite the varied arguments that President Bush has tried to shore up support for the war in Iraq, the most damning critique of the decision to go to war in the first place remains the simple fact that more than two and a half years after that war began, he is still having to justify his decision to the American people.

Andrew Luks
Seattle, Nov. 12, 2005
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To the Editor:

It was highly inappropriate and offensive to those of us who have loved ones interred at Arlington National Cemetery for Vice President Dick Cheney to participate in a Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony there.

The Bush administration continues to send others to fight the misconceived conflict in Iraq, a war Mr. Cheney had no small part in starting. But Mr. Cheney avoided Vietnam because, as he said, he had "other priorities."

Nancy D. Rowles
Covington, Ky., Nov. 12, 2005
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To the Editor:

On Veterans Day, what this country needed was a series of speeches from our president, vice president and senior staff members on topics related to duty, honor and country.

What we didn't need was a collective group of sermons on why it is wrong to disagree with their position or even to question their rationale at all.

John P. Bertsch
Fernandina Beach, Fla., Nov. 12, 2005