Whether or not you agree with or disagree with President Bush’s recent decision to sent an additional 21,000 U. S. troops into Iraq there is something in this decision that every single American should find reprehensible. The change of policies, which permits the length of tour in the combat area to be extended and the recall to a combat area with only one year in between tours of duty, is that thing.
I am a former Utah National Guard member who served with the 19th Special Forces Group Airborne during the Vietnam War years. Through out these years, each and every young American male knew his options regarding the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. You knew the length of time of commitment and risks associated with those options. You calculated your odds and the ramifications of those various choices. You looked inwards at your beliefs and values. Then you made a decision you hoped you could live with for the rest of your life. Your family lived with those results as well.
If you found yourself in Vietnam as a result of your decision, you knew your tour of duty in Vietnam was 365 days and a wake up. You knew that if you survived the 365 days the only way you were going back was if you volunteered to go back.
By changing the current rotation and tour of duty time periods the Bush administration is saying, to the all-volunteer members of the armed forces and their families, you can not hold us to our word. Only those few of you who have volunteered must pay the price for our decisions, over and over again. I do not believe any American can be okay with these policies unless they are willing to be and or have their sons and daughters be, at a very minimum, subject to a lottery system of induction into the armed services of these United States.
Rise up your voices and let this administration know you do not believe their actions to be just or honorable.
Frank V. Pedroza
West Valley City
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