I’m writing in reply to Curtis Hendel’s letter to the editor, "Why This War?" that appeared in the Jan. 8 edition of the Star Herald.Why this war? First of all our troops are not in Iraq because they want to be. No one in the service desires to be taken away from their jobs to a far away country, disconnected from their loved families. They are trained professional soldiers, and, I might add, damn good ones. They don’t have to believe in what they are doing. They only have to do what their superiors tell them to do. In this case of Iraq, the command is to fight this war, … a war predicated upon lies (WMD) without regard to the lives that will be lost, … a war based on personal reasons (they tried to kill my daddy) and the financial reasons of oil revenues (Halliburton and Cheney).Hussein was technically contained while the inspectors were there. As unprepared as Iraq was, the Green Berets could have had him captured without killing 10,000 innocent Iraqi people and killing or maiming 7,500 American soldiers, or more. We are no longer allowed to know the true numbers. We are now being governed by this appointed president and have the most secretive government this country has ever seen, and taking away veterans benefits.Terrorists could be contained by tighter controls on our borders. The Mexican and Canadian borders are wide open, and this administration is trying to make it easier to enter. Only one percent of our imports are inspected, and we are now living a life of fear, because we know our borders are open and nothing is being done.Ed Peltz,Kingman, AZ
