In “An Invisible War” (column, May 3), Bob Herbert describes the lone sacrifice paid by soldiers and their families for the Iraq war. He uses Paul Rieckhoff, a veteran and the head of the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, to provide tangible observations that nonmilitary Americans are totally disengaged from the war.
Mr. Rieckhoff blames President Bush for not having asked the American people to do anything and says that if the American people understood what it was like to be in war, they would behave differently.
The problem is more basic. One can just imagine what the reaction would have been from the American people if President Bush had said before the invasion of Iraq, a country that never attacked us, that there would be thousands of casualties (not counting innocent Iraqis) and that there would be an open-ended nation-building project to repair the damage. There would be no chance that America would be in Iraq today.
History shows that when Americans are called upon to fight a just war (as in World War II), there is no limit to their engagement and sacrifice. The Iraq war is not a just war. The Bush administration knew that before we invaded Iraq, and tragically, our military has had to bear the entire burden.
Bill DeLorenzo
Basking Ridge, N.J., May 3, 2007
To the Editor:
Bob Herbert conveys Paul Rieckhoff’s lament that Americans are shopping instead of paying attention to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While I feel terrible for Mr. Rieckhoff and his fellow soldiers and the sacrifices they have made, I and almost everyone I know opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning.
I marched, I protested, I signed petitions, I wrote my Congressional representatives, I voted in 2004 and 2006 with the intent to signal my discontent with the direction the country had taken on the war. Since nothing I did and nothing I felt, wrote or signaled has made the least amount of difference, I have indeed detached from the situation.
While I honor the good intentions behind the military service of Mr. Rieckhoff and others in Iraq, I disagree that they’re carrying out “an important task.” The reason Americans are distracting themselves is that the importance of the Iraq war is no longer (and perhaps has never been) apparent to many, and it’s too painful to watch the unnecessary killings of so many Americans and Iraqis.
Of course we’d rather watch the fake conflict of “American Idol.” Or buy shoes.
Lisa Hamilton
Los Angeles, May 3, 2007
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