Not all Americans are against the war
Dear Editor,
I don’t know why so many Americans are opposed to the war in Iraq. We’re there to defend our national security. We’re there to fight terrorists who wanted to be there on Sept. 11 but missed the plane.
And we’re also there to free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator whose foot is so heavy no Iraqis dared to oppose him for fear that their mothers and daughters would pay the price.
Not long ago we watched the joy of the Afghan people when our valiant troops helped remove their oppressive government. Kites, music and cheers were the signs that Americans were welcome.
Nevertheless, so many Americans insisted it would be different in Iraq – that these people wanted Saddam to stay and didn’t want American troops there.
I’ve just watched the citizens of Baghdad take a sledgehammer to a statue of their “great” leader. And once it fell, these Iraqis stomped on his image.
It was a powerful moment in history. Yet somehow, I just know this scene meant nothing to the many demonstrators whose minds are open only to America-hating propaganda.
The most poignant irony is that today the American invasion of Iraq is more popular in the streets of Baghdad than in the halls of many of our own universities! – Ed Hanks, DU alumnus
Response to Bridges’ series
Dear Editor,
I read with interest Senate Reporter Melanie Gretchen’s article “DU Lacks Political Passion” and was surprised at some of the comments made by students and faculty as an attempt to compare our current conflict with the Vietnam war was made.
As a member of the class of 1968 (school was interrupted for me- drafted in 1966, back at school in 1968-70) I can only try to relate to those who were not on campus that there is no parallel to be made.
When I was in school every person on campus was affected by the war.
Draft cards were issued to every male student who registered (it was mandatory to register) on his 18th birthday.
Every male on campus was subject to being drafted into military service and serving in the war.
Casualties were not looked upon as numbers and statistics, but as neighbors and friends.
Students for Democratic Society was an active force on our campus and others. There was a “radical” change in clothing (hippie) and music (I left school to the sounds of the Beach Boys and returned to Hendrix!).
The Vietnam war affected every student on campus because every male student was just a step away from being drafted and sent to Asia.
It was real. It was terrifying, and for the first time in American history students from coast to coast stood up to parents, police and politicians and said “Hell no.”
Passion isn’t something that arises because of a war or major conflict.
Passion has to stir the individual to make a stand for what he or she believes in. The Vietnam war did that for my generation.
I returned to school in 1968 after serving with a unit in Vietnam that suffered 80 percent casualties. I felt the passion, but lived in the shame of having served in the United States Army in Vietnam.
I was called a baby killer and spit on when I returned, when in principal. I served to fulfill my obligation to my country for the many rights it afforded me.
Passion still rages inside of me, for I will always remember the friends and neighbors who were wounded and killed in Vietnam. Some enlisted, but many were drafted like me.
I have finally come to terms with my service in Vietnam, and cannot tell you how proud I am of our servicemen and women (a pride our country didn’t seem to have for us), but the reason you don’t experience it on campus today the way we did is simply because it doesn’t affect you the way it affected us.
We were all just a draft letter away from joining the troops, and it weighed on each and every one of us every day we were in school. -Alex Webbe, DU alumnus, Class of 1968
DU has always lacked passion
Dear Editor,
I have to comment on your “DU lacks political passion.”
The students at the University lack passion for most things overall not just politics.
As an alum I was appalled with the lack of school spirit students had for athletics so it is no surprise that students have no political passion. It is just the atmosphere of the University. – L. Levitt, DU alumnus, Class of 1995
