What I find offensive is the fact that the administration won’t let pictures of returning dead be shown like they were during the Vietnam War, and that we get to see only a few of the returning maimed and limbless soldiers for a few minutes during the 6:30pm news broadcasts only every few weeks or so. Wake up. That cartoonist is one of your biggest supporters. He was speaking up for you, and for your comrades.

It’s a coureageous act to stand up to the administration to try to stop getting you guys killed and maimed over there. Can you honestly say that the President is supporting you and your comrades? There was the “Mission Accomplished” statement for his own PR, improper planning and foresight, insufficient forces, and improper equipment and intelligence. Now worst of all is the fact that in order to save face, the Administration claims that their own Pentagon studies that state that our armed forces are at the breaking point are wrong! Instead, they claim, our armed forces are really just “battle hardened”. That obvious contradiction is what prompted the cartoonist. This is not “some sort of political point”. An Administration that lies to the people of the U.S. and to our servicemen is very serious business.

Some Vietnam vets also felt that they were in Nam to support the President and the “mission”. Yet thirty years later, we all now understand that the anti-war protesters of the sixties and seventies had it right back then. We didn’t fail then for lack of will or for trying, or even because some “pantywaists” pulled us out early. We couldn’t win, after ten years, because we underestimated the mindset and culture of the Vietnamese from the very beginning.

Those 60,000 sons whose names are on the Wall died in vain. Do you want to wake up thirty years from now with the realization that your butchered comrades were butchered in vain for the wrong reasons that you support so dutifully? Do you claim to understand the mindsets and religions of the Iraqi people so well that you can be certain that no matter what we do, they won’t just fall back into the same old traditional zealot-controlled regimes?

If you really think that the cartoonist’s goal was to make “all the hard work and sacrifice we’ve had to date a moot point”, you’re living in a dreamland, and the President will be able to continue to get you to buy whatever he’s selling.

I’m also curious to know what good news in Iraq reporters are refusing to cover, so Id like to see it posted here. I could go on but I’m stopping here because my comment already seems quite lengthy compared to the others.

We in the military volunteered to defend this nation. The Marines that served with me had no complaints about the mission (indeed, the single largest complaint was the lack of alcoholic beverages). We are doing great things over there that are *not* being reported. Indeed, reporters are invited to attend openings of schools, water treatment plants, etc., but all they ask about is “where’s the last IED explosion?” They only care about reporting the bad stuff. As a result, what you see back in the States is a never-ending parade of death and destruction, yet it represents a minority of what’s actually going on.

For Toles to use us as some sort of political point in his favor is reprehensible. We are *not* victims! We chose this career, and we support our President and the mission. The single biggest fear we have is that the pantywaists back in Washington will pull us out before we’re done, thus making all the hard work and sacrifice we’ve had to date a moot point. *That* kind of thing is what Toles is trying to get accomplished with his “political commentary.”

Eric, please contact me and let me know what the reporters in Iraq are refusing to cover, that people back here at home need to know about.

I’ts too bad more people just don’t look deep enough at what’s really going on.

Illustrating a a soldier with no arms or legs and trying to make a political point out of it is very similar, if not the same, as using “the troops” to make political points.

Look, the Chiefs hardly ever write letters to newspapers. The fact that they did here should tell you something.