A month ago I wrote a letter in this forum that compared the determination of the Viet Cong and that of the insurgency forces in Iraq. I said that they were ready to die in order to kill. Was I wrong? Two more Mainers are dead by the hands of a suicide bomber.

My prediction: A legal election will never take place in Iraq. How can the people of Iraq vote when they can’t get to the voting places to vote for a puppet president endorsed by our sitting president? The opposing factions will scream and the battle will rage and many more of our countrymen will die.

I’ll give President Bush a third strike at bat. The first was going to war based on false intelligence. The second was his declaration on an aircraft carrier that the war in Iraq was won and we had conquered evil. The third is the rhetoric that Iraq will have free elections in January. That won’t happen.

Our kids and loved ones are dying, and it will not stop. The president should send his two daughters to battle in Iraq. He may have a different view on this insanity.

I love and respect our troops and, as a Vietnam veteran, I just want them to come home. When they do, please give them a hug and a ” welcome home.”

Al Pelletier, Norway