Letter: Look to Bush for the face of defeatism

Wednesday, May 2, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

I am sick and tired of people who argue that to criticize the fatally flawed prosecution of the Iraq war and to seek to bring it to an end is an insult to the heroic efforts of our brave soldiers. In Bill Caldwell's April 28 letter, "War being made into a political platform," he makes this criticism of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and attacks Reid as a defeatist and an embarrassment to Nevada.

This reminds me of the comments by Ralph Bunche before the United Nations that "to suggest that war can prevent war is a base play on words and a despicable form of warmongering The world has ample evidence that war begets only conditions that beget further war."

If Mr. Caldwell wants to see the face of defeatism and embarrassment, he should look to the Bush administration , whose deception, incompetence and ineptitude not only provided false rationalization to go to war but also doomed any chance of winning the war. Mr. Caldwell also states that we should never forget 9/11, and I agree. But when you look into the face of Vice President Dick Cheney, remember that contrary to his false statements, Iraq was not responsible for 9/11.

No, Mr. Caldwell, Sen. Reid is not a defeatist, loser or embarrassment. He is a dedicated and honorable public servant who, unlike warmonger s, is doing something which honors the lives lost in the war by ensuring that further lives will not be sacrificed in a war that has no military solution, but only a political solution - a solution that the Iraqis are either unwilling or incapable of achieving.

Tom Harper, Henderson