America panicked over terrorism and, as usual, the young men and women of our military are forced to pay the price.

We began our siege of Iraq in 1990, after driving the Iraqis from Kuwait, a military action that Kuwait paid the U.S. for, which is why U.S. Marines began calling themselves Uncle Sam’s Mercenary Corps.

Prior to this engagement with Iraq, we had been allies against Russia and Iran during which time we installed the Iraqi air defense system and otherwise armed them. Mr. Rumsfeld, himself, was in Iraq in 1986, shaking Saddam’s hand and calling him and the Iraqi people friends of the United States.

In March 2003, Saddam agreed to disarm and actually made an effort to do so. Despite this fact, Bush chose to invade Iraq, thereby showing that he and the administration had no confidence in the many weapons inspectors who were convinced after 13 years of inspections that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. To this day, nothing has been found and most likely never will.

May the dead and wounded forgive us all for this horrendous error in judgment.

Jamie Beaulieu, Jay

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