Dear Editor:
That "infamous traitor to the Fatherland," Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Jesus came to comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable."
I take it as no small accomplishment that my Dec. 27 letter disturbed so many people apparently still comfortable in their support of the Iraq War.
Unfortunately my critics felt so bereft in their own justifications for the war that they had no recourse except to respond with reflexive clichés and personal attacks. Of course it is impossible for any supporter of Bush's horrifically criminal war or any soldier who helped him execute that crime to feel anything like pride, honor or integrity, and they all know it. That is why military families especially protest observations like mine so vehemently. I can understand their rage. It's just that they should be directing it at people like journalist (sic) Thomas Friedman and Bush.
Personally I have never been pro-military. If I were I would be outraged that deceiver Bush degraded the profession of the American soldier beyond any rehabilitation. All wars represent, as Robert Fisk stated, "... a total failure of the human spirit." It's just that the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq have so dishonored our country and the reputation of our warriors that America is now universally regarded by peace loving people as the greatest terrorist threat in the history of the world.
I am not insensitive to the fact that many poor and otherwise disadvantaged young people have seen military service as a chance for a leg up on bettering their status in life. I wouldn't propose to argue the Nuremberg Convention with them. Neither would I praise them for their service. I would advise them however that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." Too many of us, especially the young, remain wilfully unaware of conditions in the world. Remember a 2006 Zogby poll reporting that some 85 percent of our troops, in harms way in Iraq, believed Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11? (Dying for a true and honorable cause is one thing. Dying for a heinous lie is beyond shameful!)
Alleged "Homeland traitor," Bradley Manning is the only soldier who took Nuremberg seriously. He is being rewarded, with torture, life imprisonment, and possibly death, for leaking evidence of war crimes by our soldiers.
If executed, will an honor guard present a flag to his grieving parents for his "service on behalf of a grateful nation?"
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