Death of the 2,000th U.S. soldier in Iraq
Re: “2,000; For soldiers, it’s not ‘just another number,”‘ Oct. 26 news story.
The death of 2,000 American soldiers in Iraq is certainly heartbreaking, but would it hurt to provide a little perspective? By any measure, the casualty rate in Iraq is by far the lowest of any major conflict in our nation’s history. The number of American dead in Iraq is very close to the number of American soldiers who died on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach in 3 1/2 hours on D-Day – June 6, 1944. It is about 10 percent of the number who died in the three days of Gettysburg. Taking a look from another angle, since the war in Iraq started, roughly 45,000 Americans have been murdered. When viewing historical events, context and perspective are always important.
Richard A. Stacy, Denver
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I want to let Spec. Jesse Rodriguez and Sgt. Christina Renson know that we haven’t forgotten about them or the rest of the soldiers still fighting or fallen. But you are right: There are those who have forgotten you and this quagmire you have been placed in. The ones who have forgotten about you are the chicken hawks who support the military action in Iraq but have not offered to go and fight or offered the lives of their children.
History will show a lot of things about this invasion into Iraq, and very few of them pertaining to this government and its supporters will be favorable. But it will show that we, the true patriots who demanded more from our government, and the real supporters of our troops, never ever forgot.
Paul Brunner, Lakewood
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Americans value life and mourn any soldier killed. The appropriate question: Is the Iraq war worth it? Is it important to have a democratic regime in Iraq, driving a stake through the Islamo-fascist goons of the Middle East?
In the meantime, cease the sentimental mewling long enough to confront another statistic: U.S. troops are re-enlisting in record numbers in Iraq. Why is that?
I was a Marine officer of the Korean War era. I correspond with a young Marine carrying a rifle in Baghdad. He tells me of his beautiful fiancee Laura and his affection for the Missouri Tigers football team. I ask him what he wants in a package. He replies that he doesn’t want a package. He wants the support of people back home.
How about it?
Michael E. Long, Denver
Romeo and Romeo
Re: “The case of Romeo and Romeo,” Oct. 26 Al Knight column.
Just in time for Halloween, Al Knight dips into his “judicial activism” grab bag to pull out a shocking example to scare the bejeezus out of God-fearing conservatives. Oh, the ghastly horror of those “activist” Kansas judges in deciding that its legislature violated higher state and federal principles of equal protection under the law!
Don’t those ignorant judges realize that, despite similar case circumstances, the legislature specifically intended (without saying so, of course) that heterosexual teens engaging in sodomy should receive lighter sentences than homosexual teens engaging in the same acts? How dare they “actively” determine that such a law isn’t fair!
Knight’s judicial philosophy is disingenuous. When it comes to laws he supports, all legislative actions become sacrosanct, inviolable acts and the courts are to ignore higher principles, cleaving to the printed text when interpreting them. Yet he is the first among many to cry constitutional foul regarding what he considers to be liberal legislative overreach.
Not everything enacted by a legislature is just, fair, right or constitutionally sound. And it’s the role of the judicial branch to say so.
William Autrey, Boulder
