spokesperson with a mandate to say what you said speaking for hundreds if not thousands of vets who are not in favor of continue fighting in the Middle East?

Sir, it takes a certain amount of arrogance to speak so strongly for an entire organization of individuals whom I am sure can think for themselves and have their own opinions. The VVAW is an organization that has every right to an opinion but you I am afraid have taken a position that you state represents everybody within the VVAW. This is very similar to Union leaders (and no where do you even state you are a leader of the VVAW) such as those of the SEIU that takes Union dues and use those dollars earned by the rank and file to advance their own political agenda. The Union leaders do not speak for all of the union members and you do not speak for all VV whether they are members of the VVAW or not.

I may not have made myself clear in my previous post I was not a fan of George Bush though I did vote for him twice. He was not the man (alright I will say it, the conservative I had hoped he would be), especially when it came to fiscal issues. However you are dead wrong when you state that he has given our country the largest deficit we have ever had... unfortunately that honor goes to our current President who in only one year has managed to surpass the fiscal damage President Bush did. In addition though it be true that Bush struck preemptively Saddam was warned with over 17 UN resolutions. I for one see nothing wrong with striking first when there is a belief that lives can be saved by waiting for the first punch to be thrown by the other "guy". Remember Democrats as a well as Republicans gave Bush the authority to go to war.

You also mention the lives of hundreds of American youths (interesting that you underestimate the American lives lost which is known to the exact number but state categorically that thousands of Iraqi's of all ages (a number nobody knows for sure) were killed by Bush. Interesting you fail to mention the number of civilian Iraqi lives that Saddam took via conventional arms as well as WMD's all very well documented. Sir, do you recall WWII and how many Millions (12+) were killed by Hitler because America and it's allies failed to preemptively take out Hitler.

How many American lives did Truman save by dropping the first two atomic bombs on N & H? Was he wrong in taking the very first action of it's kind? If he had not it is possible that my Father who was in the Pacific Theatre would of been a casualty of fighting a war by the Marcus of Queens-bury rules which of course the Japanese those folks of such integrity failed to do while seeking peace at the same time killing thousands of Americans in Pearl?

I will repeat that I am not a fan of Bush but how can you pin the full blame on him for job outsourcing? If I recall that actually started in full force under Clinton who if the people, yes regular people had not risen up in one voice most of the West Coast ports would be now in Chinese hands.

Personally I am getting sick of hearing about tax cuts for the rich. Sir, we all got a tax cut that is those of us who pay taxes. Certainly you know that close to 50% of Americans pay no tax at all and in fact get what is called a tax credit. And to return to outsourcing what do you have to say about President Obama guaranteeing a $2 billion dollar loan to Brazil to develop it's large oil fields off shore in the Atlantic with the oil already sold to China. Now that is what I call outsourcing. We have Known reserves in the Dakota's, Wyoming, Montana, the Gulf, Alaska, off the Pacific and the Atlantic that would fully and yes I said fully take care of our energy needs for centuries and that is not counting the massive coal deposits we have. Yet, instead of creating thousands nah tens of thousands of American jobs and keeping our dollars at home Obama sends them off shore. Do you know where most solar panels are made? Solar panels that when installed in American homes get Federal tax credits? Ninety % come from offshore most from China.

Obama and his liberal cohorts want us to become a green country. Sounds good and so with the backing of brilliant Al Gore the Democratic congress two years ago passed laws that gave tax breaks for many things one of them being ethanol production. So what happened, well as it turns out that unlike the Brazilians who use sugar cane, corn used in Ethanol production is very energy intensive and expensive. Plus, taking millions of bushels of corn out of the food chain has raised the price of the food we all eat a similar story to the farmers and their vendors and suppliers in Northern California who because of liberal judges and environmental groups have turned off the water that goes to irrigate the most fertile farmland in the Nation and in most of the world. Why so smelt (they look like sardines could live). And this is a bill that Obama backed.

The ironic part of that is while an Illinois State legislator Obama backed a bill that stated that if during an abortion the fetus should come out alive that the health care workers should do nothing aid the BABY from continuing to live. This so outraged most people in Illinois the bill was shelved and if I recall he was the only one to state support for this horrendous bill.

So here is a proposal for all vets whether of my age your age or those of the ages of my sons. How about we open our energy reserves to development full development (right now the Obama administration is attempting to annex to the federal govt over 10 million acres of fertile energy land so there will never be development). We allow new refineries to be built and for every barrel of oil that is taken out of US land I would be in favor of the federal government taxing (yes I said taxing) each barrel say at the rate of $5 a barrel. All of this money to go into a fund overseen by bipartisan non politicians who are experts in alternative energy methods. A panel made up of not just big companies but all of entrepreneurs etc... and that this money be used for R & D as well as development and deployment of real answers to alternative energy production. Wind power and solar as nice as they sound will never serve a large portion of our needs. Nuclear and efficient batteries can and this is a way to fund that type of research. It is also a way to put our People back to work. It is also a way to keep our noses out of being the worlds policeman.

I could go on but I know I have already written a book here. I must agree with you on one of your very valid points and that is that President Bush treated Veterans very poorly while he was in office. By the way anybody who can fly a jet onto a carrier shows that they cannot be as stupid as most of you anti Bush fanatics lead people to believe. Though l will repeat as a conservative President he wasn't.

Thank you for the time and all of the above is just my opinion.

God Bless

marc