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Letters to the EditorsRemember that our military has civilian control© St. Petersburg Times published March 25, 2003 For those folks who feel, as I do, that they need to protest the war in Iraq, it is important to distinguish between the military and the civilian administration. Our troops are not to blame for the war; they are just obligated to fight it. The G.I.s are just men and women like us who happen to be soldiers right now. They deserve not just our support, but also our most sincere gratitude for risking their lives to do their best to protect us. One of the most awful experiences of my life was coming back to the States from being overseas in the Vietnam War and seeing Americans spitting on the men who had risked their lives to defend them. The Vietnam War was an unjust war and should have been protested. However, the military is, by design, simply a tool of the civilian government. The military personnel are trained to obey without question. This is a tradition that goes back to the foundations of our country. It is a key element in the success of our country. We have only to look to other countries where the military keeps taking over to see that we have the preferable model. The civilian government is totally responsible for the control of the military. The main reason, in my opinion, that the Vietnam War was unjust, was that we tried to meddle in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. We are doing the same thing in Iraq. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have finally admitted that their real reason for starting the war was to oust Saddam Hussein. Who is next on the hit list? The Iraq war needs to be protested strongly, but please remember that our soldiers are dedicated to protecting the United States. They are not responsible for the decision to go there. The best way to protest the war is to work for our own regime change in 2004.
Protests demoralize the military My country right or wrong, my country. My president, right or wrong, my president. The die has been cast. We can't turn back the clock. We are at war and we should be backing our brave men and women, assuring them that they are fighting for a country that is behind them 100 percent. Yes, we need the press, but what we don't need is to continuously hear about thousands of war protesters. This is demoralizing to our military and their families and confusing to our children. The press needs to knock it off and stop giving attention to these protests. It is as if we are in the midst of a civil war, a war within a war. I almost feel more frightened for our country than for the war in Iraq.No one wants war, but sometimes it is the only recourse for peace.
Our nation is losing its heart Sunday night I watched Michael Moore get his Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, and he used his 45 seconds to reiterate his opposition to the U.S. slaughter in Iraq: "We live in fictional times, with a fictional president elected by a fictional election, leading us into a fictional war justified by fictional evidence." A sizable portion of the audience booed him, some applauded, and he was led off the stage. I was sad he wasn't cheered. Later Steve Martin came on and said, "The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo," and there was loud applause. I was just sick at heart to realize that so many of my fellow Americans have bought into the rationale that "might makes right" and an unprovoked attack on a relatively defenseless nation is now the American way. I have been hearing a lot about the United Nations getting restructured, or re-created to be more "relevant," meaning more submissive to U.S. control. Some want to take the veto away from France, saying France is now an irrelevant nation because it had the temerity to stand up to the U.S. aggression and say, "No! We will not endorse this immoral action!" I realized that France is the heart and conscience of the United Nations, and to remove it from power would be to gut any humanity from the organization. Not that they won't do it. Heart and conscience are not much in vogue right now. It's all about power, greed, money and control. These are strange and painful times. I can see in my mind the America of the future, and it is becoming a country without a heart.
An improper protest Re: Academy Awards. Michael Moore's use of entertainment TV to express his view of the Iraq war was completely against all proper use of the media. While he may have his own view of the war, using the free media to castigate President Bush and the combined war effort was not only disturbing, but also in very poor taste. I for one will certainly not attend any pictures he directs. We are at war! Now is not the time to destroy our country but to draw it together. I doubt Mr. Moore was ever in the service.
Moore made an ass of himself Michael Moore, the egotistical slob who has made a career of soiling the carpet with his fanatical anti-American demagoguery, has this time used the Academy Awards forum to spit on the country that allows him to rant and rave. I was not surprised that Bowling for Columbine, his pathetic attempt to make money from the tragic deaths of public school students in Colorado, was given an award. With notable exceptions, Hollywood, for the most part, is pro-abortion, antigun ownership; pro-United Nations and anti-American. Moore hates everything about this country. Until now he has been content with visiting the national headquarters of Ford Motor Co. trying to ban SUVs, as well as going to other major corporations that actually produce products which provide Americans the best life-style in the world. His crowning moment was making an ass of himself on TV at the Oscars. The Oscar, along with the Emmy and the Nobel Peace Prize, has joined the long list of meaningless awards that like-minded people give to each other.
Protecting even the ungrateful I would like to thank the Academy, the sponsors, presenters, nominees, winners and especially Michael Moore for reminding us all that the American and allied soldiers who fought and died today in Iraq did so in order to protect even the most shallow, self-important and ungrateful among us from having to endure another attack by our enemies.
The Halliburton connection Re: Iraq's oil industry will need postwar repairs, March 24. Surprise, surprise! It was reported on NPR a few days ago that an American company will be in charge of awarding contracts to major U.S. corporations for the "rebuilding" of Iraq. Those contracts will be awarded soon! Now, it is reported that "The Pentagon has contacted a number of major oil industry service companies -- among them Halliburton Co., once run by Vice President Dick Cheney -- to repair any of Iraq's wells that are damaged and to assess other facilities." The recent protestations by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the boys that "the oil in Iraq belongs to the Iraqi people," are so disingenuous, yet where is the outrage? This war was never about "disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction" which was later changed to "weapons of mass terror," for effect, I'm sure, nor was it about "freedom for the Iraqi people." Those who believe these lies have been duped. The president of the United States would not lie? Read the history books folks -- citizens have been lied to many times in the past by politicians who have hidden agendas, and are willing to risk soldiers' lives in pursuit of those agendas. There is absolutely no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, yet this administration tried to link the two to raise fear, and thus to incite war. Bush and the boys are not really concerned about "bringing freedom to oppressed people."' If they were, they would be invading many countries around the world whose dictators have brutally oppressed their populations. Well, maybe it's too soon to tell; maybe there is a plan to take over the world, but then maybe my distrust of this administration is causing me to think too cynically, or maybe I'm trying to cling to reality in the face of this insanity.
Are you afraid of dissent? Re: Web use soars on war coverage, March 23. I found it peculiar that the Times picked up this piece on increased Web traffic due to the Iraq conflict from the Washington Post and devoted about 24 inches of space to it, but couldn't spare the additional inch to run this deleted paragraph, which was in the original Post article by Leslie Walker. "Traffic also jumped this week to antiwar Web sites, which have been coordinating peace protests for months. On average, three leading protest sites (www.antiwar.com; www.unitedforpeace.org; www.stopwar.org.uk) drew 160 percent more traffic than they did four weeks ago." Are you afraid of dissent and a shift from the party line that you couldn't tell your readers to check out these fine sites? No wonder so many of us no longer trust the media to give us the news. Thank God for the Internet and the host of news sites worldwide that provide the variety of views the Times so fears.
It's time we got out of the U.N. Although it's been obvious for many years, the United Nations this past couple of weeks left no room for doubt as to its ineffectiveness and impotence. The United Nations, for some reason or other, is unable to enforce the very resolutions it passes. The Security Council is a joke since a handful of member nations can veto, not based upon real concerns, but on antagonistic politics. Since every country, including the United States, can and will act with or without the consent of the United Nations, what purpose does it serve? I believe it's time for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations and ask that organization to find a new home.
Is benevolence what we need? Re: Consider Jesus' strategy, letter, March 21. The letter writer was concerned about President Bush's Christianity and war and suggests the president think about what Jesus would do. I haven't a clue. But perhaps we should have been a little more benevolent to Adolf Hitler also. What do you think?
Eager spectators? While I sit and watch every major TV station tell us almost every little detail and show us all kinds of pictures of things that are actually happening over in Iraq in real time, I have to think that perhaps we are like the Romans at the Coliseum in their seats watching the Christians being fed to the lions.
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