If George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the chickenhawks currently running this country had fought in Vietnam, instead of hiding from it, we wouldn't be in this deadly, chaotic, expensive mess in Iraq. They would remember what a dead soldier or Marine looks like, and anybody who's ever seen one knows better than to rush off to battle without first having considered all of the diplomatic alternatives.

Since March, when we invaded a foreign country for reasons that have all since proved to be unfounded, American servicemen and women have been dying and being wounded for no articulable reason. Vietnam combat veterans--who fought valiantly in an unwinnable war initiated and mismanaged by clueless politicians in dry socks sipping bourbon on the other side of the globe--have been warning, since before the invasion, that we were being pushed, dragged and stampeded into another quagmire.

The neoconservative politicians who wanted the war ridiculed us, waved our flag in our faces and accused us (of all people!) of being unpatriotic. While lecturing us on patriotism, they would point out, condescendingly, that Iraq was "nothing like Vietnam." Now, with the passage of each day, it's becoming more and more clear that the only substantive difference between Vietnam and Iraq is the color--Vietnam was green, Iraq is brown.

Please see the attached Washington Post article about a speech given yesterday by retired Marine General Anthony Zinni (who, coincidentally, retired at Quantico the same day my son Lee Kindlon was commissioned a Marine Lieutenant. I was there and I was bursting with pride for both of them). General Zinni knows a chaotic mess when he sees one.

Perhaps George W. Bush should read the article. Then he can go put on his borrowed flight suit costume and tell General Zinni he's being unpatriotic. I'd pay money to listen in on that conversation.

The names of some of my best friends are on The Wall in Washington, DC. I protest this mindless war--or whatever it is--in Iraq, and I say it is time we brought our troops home, where they belong. Semper Fi, Terence L. Kindlon (long ago and far away known as Sgt Kindlon, USMC)