With respect, Mrs. Galvez

I have just finished reading Mrs. Galvez’s piece in the Sunday Morning Editorial section of the Salt Lake Tribune and I’m complied to reply.

First let my say that I have great sympathy for the loss of your son’s life which he gave in ultimate sacrifice to this country. He was following orders, doing what a soldier does. The closest I have been to the Iraq war is the recent safe return to the states of my nephew from the horror and chaos of Iraq. I served in the Utah National Guard 19th Special Forces Group Airborne during the Vietnam War years. Before any of you say I was taking the easy way out of that war you need to stand in the door of a perfectly good moving military aircraft at 1000 feet above the ground preparing to exit. Seventeen successful parachute landing falls and six years of commitment to this country allow me the opportunity to speak.

Those of us who have opposed the Iraqi War since before the preemptive invasion, along with the majority of the citizens of this country who now believe we should not be there and Mayor Rocky Anderson as part of either group have the right as well as the responsibility to speak out against a war we believe to be illegal and ill-conceived. Osama Bin Ladin, the real planner of the attacks of 911 is still alive somewhere in Afghanistan or hiding somewhere nearby. What happened to President Bush’s pledge to bring to justice the perpetrators of this horrific deed? Al Quaida is in the mist of resurgence and growing stronger there as we speak. Asking questions and raising our voices in protest of this war in no way diminishes our support for the young men and women who are now in Iraq following orders. To suggest otherwise is both naïve and a distortion of logic. The Uniform Code of Military Justice speaks of unlawful orders. It provides guidelines and consequences for actions taken by soldiers in regard to such orders. It places responsibility on a soldier for actions and decisions he makes while being part of the military. If the code holds a soldier accountable, why then should the electorate be held any less accountable? The code provides for decisions and actions not taken through blind obedience. Why then are we, who have questions and speak out about this war, being castigated as non-supportive of troops or non-patriotic for not blindly falling into step with this administration?

Over 56,000 Americans died in Vietnam. The number of wounded must have been near the number now serving in Iraq 154,000. Over 3170 troops have been killed in Iraq, including Mrs. Galvez’s son. More than 23,000 troops have been wounded. A term which in no way does justice to the pain, suffering and the continued long term effects or consequences of being wounded. I believe I give much more support to my nephew and his fellow soldiers with whom he serves by speaking out against this war than by blindly accepting President Bush's decisions. Especially decisions made with “faulty intelligence”, “intelligence skewed with intent” or “intelligence filtered with bias”. Have we forgotten the inability to find WMD’s or the lack of Iraqi throngs throwing flowers as our troops entered their country?

Does Mrs. Galvez really believe she pays a higher price or more justified tribute to her fallen son by asking another mother to pay an equally high price with yet another son’s death without the people asking why? Do you truly believe that those of us, who call for a stop to the bloodshed before another falls, fail to pay grateful thanks or respectful homage to those who all ready have? I strongly suggest this is neither the case nor are we ungrateful or unpatriotic. To even hint at this is contemptible, void of logic and worse yet, an attempt to deny us of rights and guarantees afforded by the constitution.