Voters Torn Between Support of Military, Concerns About War

[G_j]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34431-2004Mar29.html?referrer=email


THE STATE OF DUBUQUE: Politics From the Ground Up

Battleground in the Heartland
Voters Torn Between Support of Military, Concerns About War

By David Maraniss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 30, 2004; Page A01

DUBUQUE, Iowa – In the days and months after Michael J. Deutsch was killed by a land mine as he drove an armored personnel carrier down a road near Baghdad International Airport, various reminders of his short life and untimely death came home to his parents in this Middle American river city on the Mississippi.

The First Cavalry shipped back his military belongings in a duffel bag and two boxes. Michael died on the last day of July last year, at 21, but the bag and boxes remained unopened for months. His mother, Ilene, said she was not ready for the wave of grief that would wash over her again if she sorted through the artifacts of her youngest boy's final days. The U.S. Army also sent home a Bronze Star, Michael's posthumous award, and his father, Wayne, wears the small star unobtrusively, without talking about it, pinned to the collar of his shirt.

From the state of Iowa, the Deutsch family received a perfectly folded American flag that flew for one day in Michael's honor above the Capitol in Des Moines. And from the White House came a letter of condolence signed by President Bush. Two letters, actually.

"The exact same one, twice," Wayne Deutsch noted dryly, sitting at the kitchen table of their wood-frame house in Dubuque's working-class North End neighborhood. "What does that tell you? It was a form letter."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34431-2004Mar29.html

[havocmom]

1. malAdministration using troops as hostages

We have to sign blank checks to Halliburton to 'feed' the troops. We have to tone down activities which we could otherwise engage in so as not to endanger troops further. The bushistas continue to inflame Iraqis so our people are facing mobs of justifiably pissed off people forced to use guerrilla tactics to defend their home. We have to find ways to pull troops out while keeping their backs covered and that isn't gonna be easy.

The chicken hawks need to be removed from leadership roles and tried as traitors for the sheer malice they show towards those who wear the uniforms of the US Military. They have used troops as a common bank robber would use an innocent bank customer to shield themselves from law enforcement with drawn guns. "Stand back and give me what I demand or the kid gets it..."

[G_j]

2. using troops as hostages

very apt description. In fact they have been holding all of America hostage since 9-11.