Let me begin by expressing my disbelief in how misinformed RedEye readers are (maybe due to the fact that RedEye is their sole news source). Allow me to clarify a couple of things about our situation in Iraq to Caton Volk, Karen Mella and Joseph Bartlett (“RedEye on the spot,” Nov. 13).
To Caton Volk: You said “[The people of Iraq have] already received a tremendous amount of pain and suffering at the hands of our government, and … it will be a shame to see more.” That’s right, Caton, it would. And that is part of the reason why we’re getting involved. The people of Iraq are suffering under Hussein’s dictatorship. So if your bleeding heart does not want to see them suffer, let the hands of our government get involved.
To Karen Mella: You said, “[My friend] only joined the National Guard because of school and stuff.” Your friend should not have joined the National Guard in such turbulent times without entertaining the possibility of having to go to war.
To Joseph Bartlett: You said, ” … I think they’ll get a lot of youths involved in the war, physically, to go over there and fight. But I don’t think we have a say so in it … I wouldn’t want to do it. But I’d do it …” Joe, the draft was abolished in 1973. You do have a choice. And if you’ve joined the army, you’ve done it to “go over there and fight” anyway.
If you all do end up getting your way (and we don’t go to war in Iraq to stop the Hussein regime’s tyranny and arms development), don’t go crying to the newspapers when you watch the people of Iraq being slaughtered by their government and another country (perhaps Israel or the U.S.) being attacked by nuclear or biological weapons.
