Letter: Troop support not same as war support

Tuesday, March 6, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

I don't need a bumper sticker to remind me to support the troops. I support them because they're Americans who have volunteered to risk their lives to protect America and, therefore, to protect me. So, of course, I support the troops. It's a no-brainer.

But I don't support a war that wasted time, money and lives by taking focus off the real threat: radical Islam. It's radical Islamists, not the Iraqi people, who have vowed to kill us and who have spread sleeper cells throughout 80 countries. So what are we doing in Iraq, and why does the president insist on staying, and why should I support such stupidity?

People say I can't "really" support the troops unless I also support the war. But I find it easy to hold both positions at exactly the same time: I want the troops to succeed. I don't want them dying for a war that failed miserably to deter the religious zealots and political extremists who attacked us on 9/11 as the president promised it would. They have grown in number and are more determined than ever.

Combating radical Islam is a complex problem that will require the best minds in America to solve. That leaves out the president and the members of Congress who went along to get along and mindlessly voted to entangle us in a maze we can't find our way out of. They deserve condemnation for what they did.

The troops, however, deserve admiration for what they did and for their sacrifice, bravery and willingness to do what most of us could never imagine doing.

Joyce Segal, Las Vegas