Letter: U.S. citizenry right to oppose wrongs

Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

In his Aug. 1 letter headlined "Learn from Vietnam: Let generals run war," James Jonas compares the Iraq war and the Vietnam War's conduct by admonishing the majority of the public for not letting the generals run the wars.

As much as it is his right as a Bush apologist to present his own perspective on the similarity between how the Vietnam War was conducted and how the Iraq war is being conducted, the following are some similarities of the two conflicts from the perspective of the majority of the population of the U.S.:

We, the people of the United States, will always honor and support our brave young men and women of the U.S. armed forces, but we bear the right and obligation to question the ability and the conduct of our leaders, be it military or civil, in the planning and execution of any conflict in which they choose to involve this great nation of ours and send our youth into harm's way. This nation is a republic, not a monarchy.

Joe Beltran, North Las Vegas

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