MB Civic

To the Editor:

Re “Consider the Living” (column, May 29):

It is fitting that Bob Herbert reminds us that when politicians and commentators tell us that we can’t leave Iraq now, “what they really mean is that we can’t leave as long as the war can continue to be fought by other people’s children.”

It is time to confront every one of the war’s supporters, be they the president, the vice president, members of Congress and commentators on Fox News Channel, about the conversations that they have had with their own children concerning service in this war.

The war in Iraq has demanded the ultimate sacrifice by nearly 2,500 service members and their families, but this sacrifice has not been shared equally by the children of the war’s supporters.

It is time to get personal with our politicians and commentators about their support for the war. It is both hypocritical and immoral to favor a war that is fought only by other people’s children.

Scott Caplan
New York, May 29, 2006

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To the Editor:

As the sister and the father of a marine on his third tour in Iraq, we heartily applaud Bob Herbert’s column.

He suggests that if the children of the well-to-do were sent to Iraq, the war would come to a quick end.

We believe that if the military were made up of people of all classes, we wouldn’t have gone to war in the first place.

Bring back the draft. Only then we will choose our wars more carefully.

Rebecca Kanner
Michael Kanner
St. Paul, May 29, 2006

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To the Editor:

Thank you, Bob Herbert, for “Consider the Living.”

Time and again, it is said that it is very easy for us who sit safely in our comfortable, middle-class homes to condemn the service members fighting overseas, supposedly for freedom but perhaps for the ulterior motives of the people in charge.

And new allegations of moral transgression encouraging that condemnation seem to spring up every day, like the Abu Ghraib scandal or more recently, the apparent murder of two dozen Iraqi civilians by American marines.

Regardless of our personal opinions, it is essential that we respect those who give their lives and those who have given them in defense of our country.

But we must “consider the living” and respect the lives of the women and men in the armed forces. What better way to respect their lives than to protect them by bringing them home?

Julia A. Moorman
Princeton, N.J., May 29, 2006

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To the Editor:

Maureen Dowd (“Live From Baghdad: More Dying,” column, May 31) notes that President Bush “has not attended a single funeral.” He has missed nearly 2,500 chances to show personal respect.

It should be mandatory that each of the officials who flung us into this miserable war should be the ones to knock on the family door and deliver the bad news, accompany the family to the funeral, and write a personal letter on the occasion of each death.

Certainly these foolish people can do that before they are severed from further public service.

Harold House
Westhampton, N.Y., May 31, 2006

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To the Editor:

Maureen Dowd noted how tragically anonymous this war is.

I understand that it is virtually impossible for us to know anything about the Iraqis who have been killed, but I don’t understand why any American must remain anonymous.

Every newspaper worth its salt should print the names of those who have been killed or wounded on the front page each day.

The Times printed short biographies of those who died on 9/11. Why can’t the same be done daily for our troops?

Zdena Nemeckova
Fair Lawn, N.J., May 31, 2006