Protesters trying to keep soldiers out of harm's way

To the editor:

How can we best support the troops deployed around Iraq? Some people believe we should suspend all critical thought and comments as we goose-step to the Bush war drums. Others of us have pursued the facts well beyond the nightly news blurbs. This makes our lives more complicated.

After researching the Iraq situation, I do not believe an invasion is required to keep our country safe from Saddam Hussein. We are currently in no danger, and Saddam can be adequately and indefinitely contained without endangering American lives in a war. Many conservatives and top military leaders in the Pentagon believe this. So does most of the rest of the world. So why is President Bush intent on such a highly risky invasion? Much evidence points to securing corporate access to the world's second-largest oil reserves.

Should those of us who know this remain quiet when our young people will soon be dying in a highly questionable and immoral war? That would be a strange sort of support. We should never send military personnel to war and endanger their lives without clear, just and compelling reasons. Moreover, civilians have a civic and moral responsibility to challenge policies that would needlessly imperil our military personnel. In our dissent, we protesters are supporting the troops. We are doing everything possible to bring them home before they are killed or disabled in the service of corporate profit. It should not be doubted: We are their strongest supporters.

ROBERT POLACK JR.

Cape Girardeau