How many deaths does it take?

To the editor:

A generation ago Bob Dylan asked, "How many deaths will it take 'til they know that too many people have died?" Dylan's question, resonating through America, helped support our troops by bringing them home from harm's way and ending the Vietnam War. Today, the Gold Star Families for Peace, families of soldiers killed in Iraq, are asking a similar question: Do George Bush, Dick Cheney and our elected representatives in Washington know how many deaths it will take?

We now know much that we previously only suspected. We know that the Bush administration committed to invasion immediately after 9-11 even though it knew Iraq and Saddam Hussein were not involved. We know that, contrary to constant claims from the White House, Iraq had no nuclear capability, no weapons of mass destruction and was not promoting terrorism. We also know that the Iraqi people did not welcome U.S. forces as liberators but viewed us as occupiers. We also know that far from contributing to a war on terrorism, the Iraq invasion has encouraged disaffected youths to join al-Qaida and terrorist groups and thus has promoted global terrorism.

Rather than cling to the same discredited lies and distortions about the war, our elected representatives should seek a strategy that could end hostilities in the Middle East and allow our troops to come home safely. Sacrificing more of our brave service men and women cannot serve this objective. We need a genuine multinational peacekeeping force that might enjoy the confidence of Iraqis rather than their resentment.

ALAN JOURNET, Cape Girardeau