Letter: Nations are free to choose their own paths

Monday, Sept. 3, 2007 | 12:57 p.m.

I am a liberal and I am also a Vietnam veteran. I served from June 1965 through June 1967 and am proud I was able to be there to see, hear and smell the country. I loved being in a country that was alive and well thousands of years before America was a dot on the map.

We tried to make them like us. It didn't work. A people must be allowed to choose their course, not have a puppet sounding the right words for the USA. A free country is one that votes when allowed to under no duress from any foreign country.

Maybe I am one of a very few who believe this but, by the count of the last election, liberals won and Dubya paid no attention and set the chicken hawks after anyone who argued that our troops must must come home as soon as possible. Too many of our young people have died, more than 3,700 at last count, with more than 1 million Iraqi civilians dead. That is more than were murdered by Saddam during his career as dictator of Iraq.

We are caught in a no-win zone in Iraqi history. They must be allowed to come to the peace table and negotiate a peace of substance. A lasting peace is essential for the Sunnis, Shia as well as al-Qaida. If that is accomplished we shall have a lasting peace and not need to capture bin Laden, for he will be a footnote in history.

Being a liberal, I have the advantage of not following Mr. Bush over and into the abyss of ruin he has bound my country to. I am not his subject - I am a free man and am calling for him to leave and take his God with him. I would rather have mine.