Letters to the editor

Officer's core

Military honor: An army doesn't move on no stomach

Editor, The Times:

I am truly, truly appalled by "War-protesting Fort Lewis officer doesn't deploy with unit" [Times, Local News, June 23].

Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada gave his word that he would serve his country. He gave his word that he would defend the Constitution. Within that promise was the promise to protect the helpless, to defend others from terrorists, to give his very life, if need be, so that others can live free.

Now he turns his back and says, I gave my word but it means nothing.

I am proud that we have a president who wants out of Iraq and other countries where we have a military presence as soon as possible. He has given us a timetable acceptable for everyone. "We get out when the Iraqis can stand on their own. Yes, it will take a while."

Cowardly "peace" activists who seem to be saying the Iraqis deserve to die are not worth listening to, and Lt. Watada should, indeed, be locked away for a very, very long time.

— David Beckenbaugh, Fall City

Live to fight another way

I am a veteran of the Korean War. I fully support Lt. Ehren Watada in his refusal to fight in this illegal Iraq war and I am going to make a donation to his cause.

He is doing this country and the people in it a great service by refusing to fight in a war that is totally illegal, and we need to get very large numbers of war protesters to stand by him every step of the way.

George W. Bush planned to invade Iraq long before 9/11 ever happened and, as a result, thousands upon thousands of innocent American and Iraqi people have been killed, wounded and tortured, and [that] is still happening each and every day. I have not heard Bush say one word about the two soldiers who were tortured and killed [in Iraq].

— Thomas Jelf, Lexington, Ky.

Our fearless leavers

I often wonder why the one officer who protests the war gets more ink than the thousands who live up to their commitments. As near as I can tell, Lt. Ehren Watada wasn't drafted, and he joined during the course of the Iraq conflict. Where did he expect to serve?

The peaceniks try to use him as an example of courage, but how exactly can it be courage to desert his mates when the going gets rough? Is he afraid to be in battle? Does he think that all who get shot at are not afraid? They, however, serve despite their fear.

The very best thing that can be said of Lt. Watada is that perhaps he realized that his cowardice is a threat to his fellow soldiers, and they would be better off without him in their midst.

The peaceniks want to reserve for themselves the position that war is wrong, and they're the only ones who recognize that. They want to use President Bush as a whipping boy for their political agenda, and try to look under every rock for any coward who is willing to recant his promise to serve. Perhaps they see in them a rationale for their own unwillingness to risk their lives for the system that gives them their right to protest. Do they really see their own skins as being more important than the freedoms they enjoy?

Perhaps the old adage "A coward dies a thousand deaths, and a brave man just one" is applicable here.

— Charles George, Stanwood

The last round

13 on the house

My husband and I moved to the Sammamish Plateau eight years ago. A couple of months after, Susan West (a woman with a history of DUI), highly intoxicated and carrying her small child in her car, hit and killed a beautiful young wife and mother out for her nightly walk with her husband. It was a few blocks from where we were living and it was a shock.

At the time, we were thankful for justice being meted out properly in a state where DUI was often punished with a slap on the wrist. The woman pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular homicide and served a long sentence in prison.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the victim's husband, the Legislature in Olympia finally woke up to Washington's incredibly lax attitude toward DUI and passed 13 state laws that were intended to tighten the screws on future offenders.

Susan West, a woman with a frightening driving history, was picked up on Sunday on suspicion of drunken driving and driving with a suspended license, and charged only with a misdemeanor! ["Driver convicted in '97 DUI death is charged again," Local News, June 20, and "DUI arrest raises questions about laws," Local News, June 22.]

Those 13 new laws have failed miserably to protect our citizens from predators like Susan West.

— Valerie Spiegler, Sammamish

Korean parallel

Appease in our time

"North Korea: dumb and dumber" [editorial, June 23] seems to imply the only thing worse than North Korea's saber-rattling is the U.S.'s response to it.

It comes as no surprise to this reader that The Times assumes the position of the "Blame America First" liberal left. Time and time again, regardless of the issue, our beloved mainstream media seeks to point the finger at Uncle Sam for everything that goes wrong on Earth.

What's next — the U.S. is to blame for the planets aligning?

We would do well to remember that history does tend to repeat itself. And treating [Kim Jong Il] in North Korea the same way British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain treated Hitler will most assuredly foster the same escalation, with more lethal results.

Unless and until this country wakes up to the new reality, we are doomed to suffer the same fate as those "once-powerful societies" that have gone before us. Remember the cries from the left after 9/11 — "How could that have happened to us? Why didn't we take action sooner?"

We simply cannot be "diplomatic" any longer with those who fail to grasp that concept. They understand only a posture of force — and an overwhelming willingness to use it at any time, preemptive or otherwise.

— Owen Ashurst, Renton

Bomb, Dick and Harry

Regarding "U.S. rejects launch of first-strike missile" [News, June 23]: Responding to former Defense Secretary William Perry's statement that President Bush should launch a preemptive strike against North Korea's launch facility, Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN, "I think, obviously, if you're going to launch strikes at another nation, you'd better be prepared to not just fire one shot."

Wonder where he learned that lesson?

— Jim Galimanis, Redmond