Re: your Sept. 20 article, “War widow, peace activist”:
The Americans who fought World War II have been called the “greatest generation” because, besides a deadly dedication to victory, they knew that articles of the kind splashed over two-thirds of the front page of this newspaper a few days ago would encourage the enemy while disheartening the citizens of this country.
There were no front page stories highlighting the staggering losses of our young men in battle, which, in many battles, numbered in the tens of thousands.
There were no weeping widows or mothers ranting on those front pages that we must stop the war and capitulate to the enemy.
These kinds of defeatist articles were not seen, because editors of newspapers at that time were responsible enough to know that giving comfort and satisfaction to the enemy is a recipe for defeat.
I remember my father was a very outspoken opponent of the war against Japan, believing this country, through arrogance and unnecessary sanctions against Japan, forced Japan to act as it did. One night, his co-workers had heard enough, so one dark night they forced him off the road and beat him almost to death. You can believe he was much more circumspect after that experience.
The “greatest generation” tolerated no such sympathy with the enemy. The difference between the “greatest generation” and the current generation is that the former were compelled by their own inner convictions to win, no matter what sacrifices were demanded of them, while too many of this generation see no need to win, as if the enemy will somehow change his mind and cease to attempt to harm us. He will not.
— Richard Paddock, Oxnard
Another comment by a conservative revisionist historian who either does not know what he is talking about or is simply doing what Baby
Bush and his gang of criminals do...lie. Casualies were very much a part of the news in WW 2. As for mothers not "ranting" about capitulating, that was because there was no reasonable doubt by any reasonably conscious person that it was a righteous and proper war to fight.
Today, just the opposite is true. Virtually no one capable of at least fogging a mirror has any illusions about this war. It was and is unnecessary, founded on a pack of lies presented by a failing and failed administration that needed to divert the attention away from that fact. Leaving Iraq is not "cutting and running" if it is coupled with a change in policy which includes isolation and quarantine. "Cutting and running" is simply a mindless mantra by those who cannot distinguish between fact and fantasy and those who can but who thrive on fear because they have nothing real to offer in the way of solutions to America's problems, largely because they and te fact that they wield power are the biggest problem faced by America.
Every soldier maimed, every soldier killed is a life wasted unnecessarily by an empty shell of a "president" who should be impeached for his clearcut crimes.