Confront real issues
Lieutenant Colonel Lynn Hamilton O'Connell, United States Army
Class of '84
Joanna Mikulski, in her article "Impending war is not worth the cost", has demonstrated an utter lack of comprehension of the war waged on the United States and the President's actions.
Would that the rest of us could live in her ivory tower of blissful ignorance.
Ms. Mikulski, more than 6,000 innocent American citizens are dead and killed in such a vile and violent fashion that thousands of survivors will be denied the small comfort of retrievable remains to lay to rest.
If America does nothing to wipe the scourge of terrorism from the face of the earth, the attacks will continue.
These terrorists want to destroy our nation, our way of life and everything we hold dear. You or your loved ones could be next.
If sanctions and international embargos were effective tools with which to alter the behavior of despotic governments, then oppression and/or state-sponsored terrorism in places like Iran, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, North Korea and Cuba would no longer exist.
The evildoers who falsely claim to defend Islam by committing violence against the West are trying to repress and silence Western culture and freedoms and not the reverse, as Ms. Mikulski suggests.
President Bush has not called for rapid strikes of vengeance. He has called for the application of our military might to the elimination of the global terrorism network which will take months and years to accomplish.
And this military effort will be in tandem with economic and diplomatic actions that are being developed concurrently.
Whether you like it or not, Ms. Mikulski, the sheltered, innocent "children of the '90s" do know war. You saw it Sept. 11. Burying your head in the sand of denial won't make it go away.
We are not helpless. Evil will be routed. If you choose not to face it yourself, pray for those who do, like your classmates in the Notre Dame ROTC programs, the servicemen and women defending your freedom today and those like Lieutenant Colonel Neil Hyland, class of 1977, lost at the Pentagon, who died defending your freedom.
Lieutenant Colonel Lynn Hamilton O'Connell, United States Army
Class of '84
Lieutenant Merritt Hamilton Allen, United States Navy (Ret.)
Class of '91
Sept. 24, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Thursday, September 27, 2001
