Cost of Iraq war too high

Dear editor:

At the 5th Street entrance to the VA Hospital in Boise, sits a large rock with the inscription: "The Price of Freedom is Visible Here."

Those who advocate our continued presence in Iraq should go into the main lobby and walk around.

"Vietnam II" has officially claimed 4,000 of our guys as of yesterday. A thousand more than were killed on 9/11. Bin Laden and his boys are still running free in Afghanistan while Bush is playing the age-old game in Iraq of trying to "win hearts and minds."

We tried to be "politically correct" for 14 years, and Vietnam is STILL a Communist country.

Iraq might be having free elections now, but after we leave, if we ever do, it won't be long until they start butchering each other again, like they have for centuries.

Bin Laden, who incidentally was the mastermind behind 9/11, still runs free. Why we are in Iraq is anybody's guess.

Let the generals run it? What general? Patreous? We need to take out Osama, and we need a general like George S. Patton to see that through. Nobody seems to understand that.

I will say this, on the GOP's behalf, though, the Democrats are wrong about this war being about oil. We aren't too far from four bucks a gallon. You'd think that for all of this "liberation," the United States would be getting a price break, wouldn't you?

Just because there hasn't been another attack on our soil since 9/11, doesn't mean there won't be. When we don't get serious about sealing our borders because we're too busy trying to guard everyone else's, it's easy for terrorists to walk right on across, organize and start setting up cells. These 12 million illegals, are they all Mexicans? Do we know that? Don't be lulled to sleep, they WANT us to start feeling relaxed, and ease up a bit on our vigilance. "We're all safe now, the boogieman can't hurt us anymore." They won't hit us again until they feel we have sufficiently dropped our guard, and you can bet they're watching the D.C. gun ban debate even as we speak. It is vital to know the strength of the opposition.

"We." Who is "we?" From the White House to the coffee house, anyone who says we should send our troops here and there, should do a little time in the trenches themselves. Easy to say when you aren't the ones having to do it. Trust me, when you're ducking and dodging bullets, it needs to be for OUR country. Says so in the Constitution that our leaders don't follow anymore.

World War II was a two-ocean war, but we cleaned out the rats in just four years, because the people in charge took it seriously. The idea was to WIN it, and bring our boys home. FDR wasn't running around trying to appease everyone, the media was on OUR side, and we had MacArthur, Patton and Nimitz kicking butts and taking names.

Everybody wants results, but nobody wants to do what you have to do to get them. Bush needs to stop wasting the lives of our troops for political correctness. Through our weapons capabilities it is WE who have the "left hook and the right uppercut." If we lack the will to knock these bums out, we need to get out of the ring

Mike Bradbury