A Vietnam Vet Says We Have to Win in Iraq

(NOTE: Tom McLaughlin is a friend, a veteran and a strong advocate for other veterans. Though we don't agree with his point of view, we feel it is worthy of discussion. — LP)

Military, not politics, should run the war

By Tom McLaughlin

Now that the election is over and there is a new representative in the 1st District, he needs to stand up and set party and politics aside and look at the only way out of the war in Iraq that will defeat the terrorists, leave a democratic government and avoid a massacre of the Iraqi people.

As a military man, Rep. Tim Walz should know we need to let our military run this war and get this administration and its bureaucrats out of it.

I fought under LBJ’s (President Lyndon Johnson) rules of engagement; I know what it is like to fight a war when control is taken away from the military. We were told during the first Gulf War that this would never happen again. It appears LBJ is back in the White House basement advising our current administration on how to run a war for public opinion, not to win, and our young people are dying because of this policy.

(The rest of the article is here.)