Dear Editor,
In Friday’s letters section, Mark Zappa took me to task for my column in the Nov. 20 Dispatch, saying that I politicized the tragic death of Marine Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes. He’s absolutely right, although he missed my point. To say that it’s impossible to separate the support of the war from the support of our troops is simplistic, bordering on ludicrous. Like Vietnam, our troops are again mired in trying to straighten out a mess caused by our politicians – not just President Bush, as Mr. Zappa assumes I believe, but all our politicians who are culpable for this mess and who refuse to admit or straighten out their mistakes.
Whether our soldiers question the validity of the war is up to them, just as it is up to each individual in our country. However, we have an all-volunteer military, and soldiers are trained to follow orders, regardless of whether they believe the mission is right, wrong, just, or unjust. Apparently, Mr. Zappa doesn’t believe the war or its justification should be open to debate our citizenry. In a totalitarian society, he’d be absolutely correct. But in the U.S., things are supposed to be different. Ever since before the Declaration of Independence was drafted, our country’s forefathers admonished us against saying nothing when we felt injustice or malfeasance were being perpetrated by our government. Our country isn’t perfect, nor are our leaders, who are also fellow citizens, and therefore fallible.
Regarding many of us not being in favor of the war, Mr. Zappa asks the question, “How do you think this makes the troops feel?” This red herring is irrelevant to the question of whether it’s a just or sensible war, or whether we should demand a real plan for getting our troops out of Iraq. He apparently thinks it’s best to collectively clam up and to possibly endure years and years of misdirection and misappropriation of our nation’s assets – both human and monetary.
Our country’s less than stellar dealings with insurgencies in the Philippines and Vietnam and the Soviets’ undoing in Afghanistan seem to have been forgotten. Regardless of why an occupying force is in a country, there are those living there who don’t like it and who will fight to the death for generations in a war of attrition against the occupiers – regardless of whether the occupiers are right or wrong.
Tom Mulhern, Gilroy
