Letter: Troops should come home now

Monday, Aug. 1, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.

Two years ago Nevada citizens and businesses began what is known as the Patriot Fund. Its purpose is to provide some financial support to the families of Nevada troops who have been killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. Your July 21 editorial, headlined "Support our troops," urged citizens to contribute to this fund because it is getting low -- 17 Nevada troops have now died in the wars. Your editorial followed a call by Gov. Kenny Guinn, asking citizens to support the fund.

It is a sorry state of affairs when a governor has to call upon citizens to voluntarily meet the obligations of a federal administration that refuses to recognize its own responsibilities to those fallen troops.

Gov. Guinn and all of the state's newspapers and citizens should be pounding on the White House door for proper support for the troops and their families. We citizens can and do support our troops wherever they are protecting our country from a legitimate, or, as the case may be, an illegitimate assignment or threat.

We are not unpatriotic if we do not support the self-serving president who put them in harm's way for no good reason. We should also support our troops by working to bring them home where they belong.

DONALD R. DAVIS Fort Mohave, Ariz.