Iraq is only ‘a battle in a war'

To the editor: Richard Bennett’s letter last week disclosed how badly he is blinded by his hatred of President Bush. Many in his movement are so obsessed with their hate Bush cause that they remind me of KKK members on their way to a lynching. My view of what’s going on in the world is far different than Bennett and his supporters. I spent three years in World War II in combat with the Third Infantry Division. We made landings in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and France; fighting the Germans, climbing mountains and living in hell so that we could preserve this democracy. Few people today realize how close we came to losing the war during the Battle of the Bulge and the Ardennes where the German were on the offensive. If Bennett was alive at the time, he could have been protesting the landing in Italy as they never attacked the U.S. When the war in Europe finally ended on May 8, 1945, according to Time Magazine, there was no plan on what to do with the defeated Germans, Italians and the Japanese still killing Americans. There was no exit strategy - the only goal was to win. In September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and Britain and France was the only barrier between him and us. The anti-war movement in this country (then right-wingers) kept us “neutral” for two years until the Japanese solved the problem at Pearl Harbor, finally drawing us into the war. Thanks to that generation’s “peacemakers,” led by Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, the Germans had plenty of time to fortify their conquered territories and continue the genocide in the death camps. We paid a high price when we finally invaded and conquered the Germans and Japanese, who in the final days continued to kill thousands with suicide bombers diving on U.S. ships. Coming to the present conflict: Bush didn’t start the war. It began with the attack on the World Trade Center where almost 3,000 were killed, not to mention those at the Pentagon. Were it not for the people with guts on Flight 93 we could have lost the White House or the Congress. This enemy today is as serious about our destruction as Adolf Hitler. Just trying to fix blame plays right into their hands. Bush quickly responded to the attack by invading Afghanistan, the refuge of the terrorists who then began moving their operations to Iraq. The entire world had the impression that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. The UN spent millions having inspection troops searching for any sign of the weaponry. In 1998, President Bill Clinton, exasperated by Saddam’s defiance, authorized three days of bombing Iraq. There were few diplomats who doubted that Iraq, in fact, either possessed weapons or were building them. As the terrorist camps, chased from Afghanistan moved to Iraq, it was a logical next step once we realized that they were serious in their determination to destroy democracy. Whether we like it or not, we are in a war and our enemies are pleased when they see you protesters doing their PR work for them. You people know how to protest, but know little about coming up with a solution, particularly now that Iran is threatening us with destruction. Sitting in your café planning your next attack against the military and the government would be better spent if you woke up. These dedicated fanatics are serious in seeking our destruction, as Mousay explained at his recent trial. Iraq is not a war - it’s a battle in a war. Edward Klein Warwick