There Are Many Ways to Support Our Troops
Re “They Deserve a Break,” editorial, March 31: Why not take this a step further? Why not make all military pay tax-free, state and federal? If we are asking these young people and their families to make the ultimate sacrifice, then they should not have to see their meager earnings be confiscated for taxes. This would further address the issues of low pay in the military, especially in comparison to other occupations, and would be a good tool for the retention of experienced troops. After all, isn’t their service worth more than their status as taxpayers? As for the rest of us, we should be willing to take up the slack, since our soldiers bear the ultimate “burden.”
Maude Ham
Burbank
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Please do not confuse being antiwar in Iraq with being anti-U.S. troops. It is very misleading for you to make them equivalent, as you have in your news reports. Like myself, hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of other Americans are appalled by this invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and are vigorously opposed to it. But in no way am I against our troops, nor are the vast majority of others who are against this war.
We are appalled by the poor judgment and devastating choices made by our political leadership, which puts our troops in harm’s way for no good reason. Our troops are largely just kids, barely out of high school, mainly hailing from economically and ethnically disadvantaged groups, and they deserve a chance to live long lives, be healthy and productive and be at home with their families. We genuinely support our troops and, rather than be hypocritical and abuse them cynically, as do our gung-ho politicians, we call for their immediate and complete withdrawal from Iraq and their return home. We owe them this protection from the misguided and mindless ideas of our president and his cohorts, who, by the way, are seeking to vastly curtail benefits for veterans of wars they create.
Walter Dominguez
Los Angeles
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No doubt people everywhere would benefit from our American way of life. In my youth we offered our American way to the people of Vietnam. I volunteered for combat duty to help kill their bad guys. All leftover Vietnamese would thus be rendered “good.” I doled out a benign superiority to anyone I didn’t first have to shoot. Good people always want to be like us. It’s that darned old “point of a gun” thing they fail to understand. Our president claims there are no atheists in foxholes. I invite him to get shot at in one with me. Blasphemy and praise come in small doses, but I guarantee we’ll both cry for our mothers. No president had my back in Vietnam, and this one cuts veterans’ benefits because we all have to sacrifice. For backup we get those too poor to opt out of combat or other idealists in various stages of disenchantment.
Don’t say mine are the crocodile tears of a Vietnam loser wracked with guilt. It’s much, much worse: Mine are tears from the wailing and gnashing of teeth, which may soon drive us all mad. Long live America.
M.D. Barritt
Chatsworth
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Personally, I’m not a big fan of this Hitler guy and how he got into power. I don’t like how he exploited that Reichstag tragedy, and I think his arguments for attacking Poland are pretty weak, but since we’ve already invaded the Poles I’m going to be a good German and support our troops by remaining silent. Signed, Hans Six-Pack.
Robert Sterling
Los Angeles
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Americans! Show the troops and their families your support by putting a flag in your car or on your house. Remember how it looked after 9/11? What a show of support for our country those flags were!
Doris Melnick
Rancho Palos Verdes
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I’ve run into a number of protesters who claim to support the troops but not President Bush. Pardon me if I seem confused, but I would like to present the following observation. Throughout history, world leaders have used military might to advance foreign policy agendas. If the president decides on implementing a course of action in response to a threat, either actual or perceived, he has the power and responsibility to do so. If he decides to use military force, he has the option to do so in his role as commander in chief of the armed forces.
If you support the troops, doesn’t it stand to reason that you are indirectly supporting the policies that put them in harm’s way? If you subscribe to my logic, then you indirectly support the president’s handling of the crisis as it now stands. Think about it.
Ronald Shimokaji
Carson