Letter: Remembering war heroes helps in terrorism fight

Monday, June 3, 2002 | 8:53 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan, in his May 26 column "We Didn't Start This War," made clear something that's been only a fuzzy feeling with a lot of us. The 9/11 massacre is dimming in all our minds. We're warned more terrorist attacks can come.

Yet we think about subjects easier to think about than the bitter reality of the terrorist war, as O'Callaghan puts it: "This war has just begun and it will be every bit as brutal and last longer than any of the past wars." And this from a man who fought heroically in the Korean War and for eight years guided Nevada as its governor. We can find inspiration in his message.

There's a natural tendency for us citizens and perhaps even the leaders of our nation to put our patriotism, strength and determination about this war on the back burner. O'Callaghan refers to World War II when we were strong and united and won that brutal war with loss of many lives.

He and other war veterans wonder, he says, if we Americans "have the strength and determination needed to stop more attacks and win this war." I, for one, think that, deep down, most of us are determined and strong, follow the news, write our congressmen, talk with each other about being at war and are determined to win it! We're firmly behind our government and our military.

Too many Americans have died in wars past to preserve our Freedom of Religion, of Speech, from Want and from Fear. We're not going to lose all that. Remembering those who died in past wars and how vicious is our terrorist enemy gives us the willpower and tenacity to fight terrorism until it's defeated.

PAUL LARSEN