Wednesday, March 26, 2003

By Staff
U.S. troops deserve
full support
To the editor:
As I watched the news on Sep. 11, 2001, I cried. Our country was attacked by evil, the kind of evil that is jealous of our many freedoms and rights.
Many men and women fought and died, and continue to fight and die to keep our country free, and we must salute them and pray for them. They need to know that they have our support.
To the people who are protesting this war, why don't you all go live with Saddam and Bin Ladin, then you can see how you feel then. We can not sit by and allow this evil to spread, so we must fight, it was our only option.
So, you war protesters, please leave, we don't need you here making things any worse for us than they already are.
To the brave men and women of our armed forces, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you all are doing for us. I pray for you every day, and you all have my support
Angela Jones-Secrist
Collinsville
The cost of freedom
To the editor:
I am so tired of hearing how the war is wrong. When we get in the streets and say that the war is murder and the president is doing this for personal vengeance, then aren't we exercising the very freedom that we say the Iraqi citizens doesn't deserve.
Do you think freedom in this country came at no cost? If so, talk to the ancestors of a World War II veteran or better yet an ancestor of a Civil War veteran. Do you still think freedom in this country came at no cost?
I could see a Baghdad citizen in the streets saying they want freedom and Saddam Hussein, the president, is an idiot. They would be tortured and, if lucky, put in a gas chamber to die.
When I can walk out a door with a Bible or worship Jehovah or even have the freedom not to believe in God at all, that is what I call freedom. To praise the country or down the country without fear of penalty, that is freedom. To send this e-mail and sign my name without fear of dying, that is freedom. These men and women of our forces are heroes and if they choose to give their life for their country and other innocent countries, then don't belittle their lives by belittling their cause.
So whatever you think is the cause of the war, if when the U.S. forces leave Iraq, the Iraqi citizens have the basic freedoms, we take for granted, then the cost of freedom was worth it.
Nikki Griffin Haynes
Philadelphia
About the Hollywood bunch'
To the editor:
OK, let's just say for a moment you bunch of pampered, overpaid, unrealistic children had your way and the U.S.A. didn't go into Iraq. Let's say you really get your way and we destroy all our nuclear weapons and stick daisies in our gun barrels and sit around with some white wine and cheese and pat ourselves on the back, so proud of what we've done for world peace.
Let's say that we cut the military budget to just enough to keep the National Guard on hand to help out with floods and fires. Let's say that we close down our military bases all over the world and bring the troops home, increase our foreign aid and drop all the trade sanctions against everybody.
I suppose that in your fantasy world this would create a Utopian world where everybody would live in peace. After all, the great monster, the United States of America, the cause of all the world's trouble would have disbanded its horrible military and certainly all the other countries of the world would follow suit.
You bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, spoiled mugwumps. Get your heads out of the sand and smell the Twin Towers burning. Do you think a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything but encourage a wanton murderer to think that the people of the U.S.A. didn't have the nerve or the guts to fight him?
Barbara Streisand's fanatical and hateful rantings about George Bush makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a railing.
You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and get out into the real world. You'd be surprised at the hostility you would find out here.
Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked, long distance truck driver that you don't think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong. Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the military that you think the United States has no right to defend itself. Go down to Baxley, Ga., and hold an anti-war rally and see what the folks down there think about you.
Please visit Clarksville, Tenn., and the 101st Airborne and talk to those Real Americans.
You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of this earth and won't lift a finger to save the life of an unborn baby.
Freedom of choice you say?
Well, I'm going to exercise some freedom of choice of my own. If I see any of your names on a marquee, I'm going to boycott the movie. I will completely stop going to movies if I have to. In most cases, it certainly wouldn't be much of a loss.
Henry A. Yandle
Hickory