I Commend Mr. Airhart both for speaking out and his other actions and determination to be heard. Iraq certainly is not Vietnam, However the lessons the American People as a whole refused to learn have so very sadly resulted in a far more inexcusable ( considering our recent history ) and blatent abuse of Information, our Democracy, and Truth — Not to mention those in the military who believed that their service was going to be used by the nation in the service of right, justice, and good — the things we are all taught as children, ideals which sadly twice in the last 50 years at least, have been utterly betrayed.
And so, once again, the Government and Media-Owner Approved voices are heard – and anything which is contradictory — ever so much even more dramatically this time for Iraq – is buried in Obscurity, and the individual soldiers voices ( I speak now of the Past – Vietnam ) only heard and allowed an outlet, some ten to fifteen years later when very few any longer cared.
How unfortunate ( and sad ) it is — that the lessons of a time which changed so many lives forever on both sides of the issue, mine included, should be rendered useless by a kind of flagwaving and feel-good revisionist history so that it would be untroubling to the conscience of Americans who wanted to know nothing more.
It is upon this foundation which an extreme and self-serving group of politicians and appointees, given an Office and Powers they never deserved, built a case, cynically using a great trajedy and the deaths of thousands to stir the pot and use as a thin justification of a war they had desired from the beginning of their attainment of office — long before the tragic attacks had occured.
Once Again I commend you, David — for your voice and your efforts —
Speaking personally — Nothing but the truth will ever make me proud of my country — and true Patriotism can never be built upon a lie.
Thomas C Collins
Greeley, Colorado