Reply #3: A related letter to the editor

[stevedeshazer]

This appeared in my local newspaper today:

Grandpa shouldn't be fighting

Our administration maintains the fiction that we have enough men and women in the service to fight in Iraq by drawing troops from the National Guard. This has allowed the administration to avoid what would be an unpopular draft.

Guardsmen who never expected to serve overseas are now finding their jobs and family lives disrupted. My 42-year-old son's pay has been cut by half.

We just returned from a farewell ceremony for Washington Guard troops at Fort Lewis. My son and 3,600 others leave for Iraq next month.

One of the sadder moments during the ceremony came when a young boy held up a sign saying "Good luck Grandpa," and another sitting close to us yelled out "Hey Granddad" as the troops came marching up the aisle.

What are we doing sending such infantrymen off to fight a war at a time in their lives when they were likely thinking of retirement?

source: http://oregonlive.com/letters/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/107719548073340.xml