http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/opinion/letters/041107.shtmlQUOTE
War proponents should send own children
THE DECATUR DAILY:
Scott Morris' question, "Do either of these extremes represent the best of America?" is well taken. I had mixed emotions about our presidential candidates until I watched the debates.
Sen. John Kerry's thoughtful, pertinent responses to President Bush's explosive and repetitive, "It's hard! Being president is hard!" allayed my doubts about Kerry's ability to lead this great nation.
Mr. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld tried to make a mockery of Kerry's war record, although they avoided serving in the war and never felt the hot breath of death down their necks.
Kerry was born to wealth, privilege and had a fine education. He could have avoided military service, but volunteered to go to war on behalf of his country.
I was a reporter in Southeast Asia during that war and in fact, left Saigon on the eve of the major Tet Offensive, the biggest American massacre of the Vietnam War.
GIs, still in their teens, on R&R in Bangkok, related how they were forced to be "sitting ducks" in foxholes, not allowed to fight back. They watched their buddies get killed and then rot in body bags left out in the hot sun.
When they learned our children were back at the hotel, they begged to see them. They wanted to reassure themselves why they were fighting the war.
Tears streamed down their sweat-stained faces as they gathered around the bed on which our children, aged four, five, six and seven, lay sleeping. Then they went back to fight nameless strangers who were told they were protecting their own children from alien invaders.
Though it ended in a stalemate, 58,169 Americans and 1,165,000-plus Vietnamese died in the Vietnam War.
If any war is worth the price of our youth, let the leaders who promote it sacrifice their own offspring first.
Gerry Coffey
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