Irony in How the GOP ‘Honors’ Our Soldiers

Re “Soldiers Do Us the Honor,” Commentary, April 15: Why does a man’s difference of opinion with President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq brand him a “Bush-hater” and dishonor the soldier? Do David Gelernter and his son have special insight into “what drives a man”? If there is any “dishonor,” it’s in how we got into Iraq in the first place. Bypassing that question by changing the reason and not holding anyone accountable for that change dishonors the whole country.

B. P. McInerny

Venice

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In Gelernter’s unintentionally ironic piece taking to task Democrats as “soldier-hating boomers,” he stated that his colleagues in academia “seem determined to turn American soldiers into an out-of-sight, out-of-mind servant class who are expected to do their duty and keep their mouths shut.”

May I point out that many of us on the left, and no doubt some in academia, do not hate soldiers, but American policy that sends them to die or be maimed where it was unnecessary to do so. And may I add that Republicans, whom Gelernter portrays as the true allies of U.S. soldiers, just recently defeated a Democratic-sponsored proposal to provide $2 billion in additional healthcare funding for veterans.

Evidently the Republicans support our fighting men and women with words, not deeds.

John Wayne

Studio City