President Bush Orders More Troops to Iraq

The recent announcement of no rotations for our troops in the Middle East places a heavy emotional burden on our GIs. I have an understanding of the logistics of why troop rotation is not practicable at the current time, but I believe that our troops would feel much better if they could see some of their loved ones.

Why not send some of the loved ones to the Middle East for short visits? Sending civilians to the Middle East would be much less disruptive to military operations, while improving the morale of our troops. Though this idea might seem radical, I do not think that sending small numbers of civilians to the operations area is nearly as dangerous as it might at first appear. Consider, there are at least several million civilians and several hundred thousand professional contract workers in the area, and having a thousand American civilians dispersed among them presents a negligible target. I personally want our GIs to be happier with improved morale, because anything the helps keep our GIs going will help keep us all going.

JAMES CARPENTER

Los Angeles