It is interesting that Mr. Groenhagen completely missed the point of this “yahoo’s” letter in response to Mike Lacy’s Nov. 12 column.

My point was simply this: If this country wants to honor its vets, it should stop killing them in useless imperialist wars that are unneccessary.

The reason I listed the wars I did was to be brief and to the point. I was not trying to make an issue out of wars of national survival like WWII. However, I think that the Vet’s who died in it would roll over in their graves if they knew their country trained the death squads in a fascist country like El Salvador.

If one would consider every instance American vets have died in imperialist wars which were unnecessary, a book could be written on it. In such cases, whether or not we should “realize it as a necessity” to slaughter the Indians, steal Mexico, and slaughter Filipino revolutionaries after we took the islands from Spain, I will leave to your judgement. I find them suspect. If such a war as these or Vietnam seems necessary to you, I question your morals. In addition, the dictatorial regime now in power in Korea is a disgrace to our veterans who died there. By the way, I’m no longer in the Guard—my conscience won out.

I reiterate my statement of conscience: I refuse to participate in an unjust war that kills innocent people trying to win freedom from oppression. There are times in the history of this country when one must realize that our worst enemy may well be our government, not poor people in the third world. Oliver North believed so deeply in our country’s principles of freedom that he told the Iran-contra Committee that a plan of martial law had been drawn up to help stifle dissent in the face of an unjust war in Central America. If such a thing happens, let such Rambos be assured that people like myself will keep our freedom in any way possible, even if we are left with no other alternative than rebellion.

Tom Rogers

veteran

U.S. Army 82-86