Proud of My Grandmother

Dear Jack,

I was so proud of my Grandma's letter to the news. She wrote a draft and I fixed and modified it to it's current form. They read from it on the news. Here it is. The bold section is what was read outloud specifically.

Dear Action News 19,

In response to your question about how I feel regarding the beheading of a US citizen, I feel sick. I feel sick because I feel the beheading was done in reaction to our abusing of Iraqi prisoners, thus something we initiated. One would think that our military police doing the abusing would know there would be retaliation for it -- that the retaliation would be on US soldiers and citizens.

Another aspect of all this that makes me upset is the comparison of Sadam Hussein as an antithesis of our actions by the government and some media (not Action 19). The comparison suggests that we are so much better than Saddam Hussein. Personally I do not think his cruelty is matchable, that we are no where as cruel as his regime to even warrant comparison. I feel that the comparison was done to further political support rather than make an actual point.

I am not sure how to solve this, but I feel that there are several objectives we should follow. The first is to dishonorably discharge the people who were active in the prisoner abuses. This shows that we do not approve of such actions among our people, and that what was done was wrong. I also think Rumsfeld should step down or be removed, as he was aware of what was going on and let it go on. His knowledge of these atrocities in addition to having power to act to stop this jeopardizes his integrity as a leader in our nation. His leadership is not a leadership that represents America. The actions of those military police were not actions that represent America.

War is never a pure thing, never something that should be rushed into, nor something that one expects to go peacefully. Many say "kill or be killed", and that is probably true. However that is far away from "rape or be raped" and the other atrocities which have risen from this war and other wars. Looking at history, many in America were informed of similar acts against soldiers during WWII by Japanese. We did not do the same to them in reaction, what would justify it now? I just do not understand the justification behind it all, nor why focus has turned from our misdoings to theirs. Both misdoings are evil and wrong and deserve equal denouncement by both peoples.

Thank you for hearing me out.

Marilyn E. H...

Ashtabula, OH