A slightly edited version of the below letter written by yours truly appears in todays (June 4th) edition of The Plain Dealer, the sole daily newspaper serving metropolitan Cleveland, OH. Please feel free to circulate/re-post. Lou headline: Americas bloody work in Afghanistan It is interesting President Barack Obama said, regarding our presence in Afghanistan, that we are finishing the job we started, echoing his comment in 2011 that our work is done in Iraq. Such statements raise the question as to the nature of our work, our job. Well, folks. those endeavors, from our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president, have involved causing mental and physical wounds, maiming, death, grief, and sorrow among thousands of Americans, Iraqis and Afghans and among drone victims in Pakistan and Yemen, not to mention immense property destruction. Included in the gruesome scenarios supported by the former constitutional law professor is the murder of suspected terrorists without due process. Wonderful. Makes you proud to be an American, doesnt it? It is impossible for a uniformed military to defeat adversaries wearing civilian clothes and living among civilians, as was the case with the Viet Cong in Vietnam, a successful strategy mimicked by al- Qaida and the Taliban. As the peace song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? asks rhetorically, When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? Louis H. Pumphrey Shaker Heights A drafted Vietnam veteran, Pumphrey is a member of Chapter 39 of Veterans for Peace, based at a Cleveland Heights church.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:43:32 +0000
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