Iraq invasion not a mistake
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Editor,
In a recent letter Bob McClellan felt compelled, once again, to tell us that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a mistake. I wish to respond to his letter on two points.
First, my son recently retired after a 20-year career as a Navy SEAL. He went on four official deployments to Afghanistan and seven unofficial deployments to Iraq. In addition, he went on several missions under special orders from the Bush White House. He went voluntarily on every one of these deployments.
Was it a “mistake” for him to go? Was he a “fool” to keep going back? Was he just “drinking the Kool-Aid?” He was wounded twice in combat action, yet he recently told me that if he could he would “go back to Iraq in a New York Minute.”
In the course of his career he had the opportunity to meet and know George W. Bush and he considered the president to be a fine leader, an exemplary commander-in-chief, and a man of high moral character. During his presidency, Bush would often meet, console and pray with our wounded service men and women. He met with every family who lost loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. These meetings were held without fanfare and without press coverage, something I know personally to be a fact.
These facts about President Bush and his character apply to my second point of criticism of Mr. McClellan’s letter. In his letters he frequently exhorts us to show civility, compassion, kindness, and love for one another. He implores us, as adults, to be role models for our youth. However, if a person or organization has an opposing point of view, his words often become vitriolic and hurtful. In this same letter, he mockingly denigrated George W. Bush, saying, “Bush the younger has become such a small Bush that he may soon be known as ‘Twig’.” That is a personal attack on a former President of the United States, and it is despicable. He should be ashamed of himself.
Jack C. Cummings
Polson