Are we to knuckle under to every third world dictator that wants to give us BS? Has it ever occurred to these people that maybe what we're doing is presenting a strong front to those who harbor international terrorists?

People who would willingly bend their necks to the bondage of international public opinion did not start this country, why should it be so now? Did we achieve the status of being one of the most - if not THE most - prosperous countries in the world by playing it safe when our backs were shoved against the wall? NO!

We are where we are, because we took the bull by the horns and taught the world what united determination could do. We have beaten every attack on our own grounds, by whatever foe attacked us, including our own during our own Civil War. Why should we allow Al Qaeda Terrorists to attack us freely, then hide behind the current Iraqi government? If we do, then they will constantly repeat the process, because they know they will get away with it.

I say Stop It Here and NOW! I have been in and seen war from a front row seat. I would much rather fight back than sit back and just take it. This is NOT what I fought for, and NOT what I want my children to be raised in. If Kiesling is too cowardly to stand and fight for the rights that he proclaims, then good riddance to him. Let the bastard go, with my compliments. Let him go to Iraq, or France, or Hell, for all I care.

I am willing to fight for his right to have a difference of opinion, and to resign because of it. His words, within the government that his hesitation supports, would have earned him a bullet and an ignominious grave. Here, he is allowed to resign honorably. Half the world has the freedoms to speak out against us because our men died to give it to them.

We have never supported war over a simple difference of opinion. Neither have we withheld what was needed to accomplish what we saw as necessary to protect our citizens from such as this terrorist asshole and his supporters. Now is not the time to change horses in mid-stream.

If Iraq hides and supports the very terrorists organizations which caused the deaths of so many thousands on September 11th, then Iraq needs to suffer the consequences of those actions. I say turn about half that damned oversized sandbox into a sheet of glass, and then thumb our noses at those who would gripe about it.

ã Earl Jones March 2003