A great letter to the editor!

[NightTrain]

From the August 26th Hartford (CT) Advocate:

I am a veteran, having served from 1965-1968. Vietnam was a terrible mistake and we are doing it all over. Our problem? We do not know history and we pay zero attention to the world's politics. We did not notice how the Viet Minh won the war against the French. But the Viet Cong did, and they were able to defeat us.

We are now in Iraq--again, a terrible mistake. Saddam Hussein, for all his faults, was able to stabilize an artificially created country. He was secular, so the Christians, a sizable minority, were able to live in comfort and stability. He kept the Sunnis and the Shia from killing each other. He was the Middle Eastern equivalent of Tito in Yugoslavia. With Tito gone, you can see the results in the former Yugoslavia as you can now see the results in Iraq.

President Bush, the representative of the American people, is supposed to protect us from adversity. Instead he has, by his aggressive invasion of Iraq, placed not only U.S. troops in harm's way, but the American people as well. I find this reprehensible.

I am a Republican, but I will vote for John Kerry. I ordinarily would not support Kerry as I disagree with his politics, but I hope, and will work, to ensure that my party will be cleansed of this terrible disease that has allowed a potential neo-brownshirt approach to American policy, both domestic and foreign.

Dr. George B. Odlum
Via e-mail