Dear Mr. President,
I'm into a new TV show called "Boston Legal" with James Spader and William Shatner . I love how James Spader's character and William Shatner's character interact. It's set in a law firm with Spader and Shatner (along with Candice Bergen) as the senior partners. Spader (Alan Shore) and Shatner (Denny Crane) have egos like you would not believe. Shatner shows his bravado mostly through his extreme Republicanism ("I can't represent him, he's poor, poor people have no money." "Guns are good. Everyone should have one." "We are at war and disagreeing with the military makes you Un-American"). Spader's character is the liberal woman chaser who takes on the unconventional cases because "conventional courts won't have me." But despite their differences they are the best of pals. They have some strange sort of bond that leads them always to the balcony at the end of the episode for a drink and a cigar and some pithy discussion about life.
Tonight's episode featured a woman wanting to sue the military because her brother, a National Guard enlistee, was killed in Iraq after he was put in a situation very different from what he was trained and sent over there to do; in addition to the fact that he was there because the National Guard extended his tour of duty to 2030 (yes, the year 2030!) citing the "stop loss" order because we are at war. “The ‘stop loss‘ orders mean personnel who could otherwise leave the military when their volunteer commitments expire will be forced to remain to the end of their overseas deployments.” (USA TODAY,1/5/04 http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-01-05-army-troops_x.htm) What exactly does “until the end of their overseas deployments” mean anyway? If their volunteer commitment is over, wouldn’t that also conclude their overseas deployment? No, what that really means is that for as long as the war is on, the troops stay. That explains why the end date for the soldier in question was listed as 2030. (It’s the military payroll computer’s way of saying “who knows.”)
Anyway, the point is that Alan Shore took the case and argued quite convincingly (although he lost since there is a law saying you can't sue the military and the judge upheld it). Crane was offended that Shore took the case (even at one point pulling rank on his obviously stunned buddy and ordering him to drop the case). Towards the end of the episode there was a great exchange between Shore and Crane (as there often is at the end of the show). Crane stated that he supported the war in Iraq so that "what was going on there wouldn't happen over here". Shore responded "I disagree with you. And if Americans can continue to nurture the expression of differing opinions, what's happening over there will never happen over here."
I think the episode summed up the anomaly of this war quite nicely. In addition to bringing up issues of the military defrauding the soldiers by making promises and not delivering (by not properly outfitting the soldiers, putting them in situations they were never trained for, and not adhering to the contractual agreement the volunteer signed in the first place), Shore's closing argument cited how during the Vietnam war there were images of the wounded and dying soldiers and Americans were outraged at what was going on. He went on to point out how the media today has been instructed not to show American soldiers being brought home in body bags or wounded in Iraq. That is not the way this country's freedom of press works. That is the anomaly - the fact that no one can really put their finger on one thing that is wrong. There are too many things. But there is there is something very wrong going on here. Something that is making the very issue so divisive that people with differing opinions can't even talk about the issues together. That is Un-American.
This war is wrong on many different levels. The war was started on a false premise, we are shown false images (lack of a complete picture is also a lie), and the worst part of all is that our soldiers are dying because of these lies. Young men are signing up today, like my 18 year old cousin who is currently in basic training with the Army National Guard, for a variety reasons; some of which include promises given to them by their recruiters. Soldiers signing up today for a three year stint in the National Guard may find themselves deployed in Iraq until 2030 or longer! How can that be okay?
Mr. President, you are the only person who can stop this. I can write until my fingers cramp. I can protest on Main Street in my hometown to the honking of cars passing by. I can write to Senators and Representatives. I can do a lot of things in my tiny corner of the world. Cindy Sheehan has done more than the average person and what has that accomplished? You, Mr. President, have the power to end this war. Fortunately, I have not yet lost the power and freedom to continue to demand that you do end the war now.
Adamantly,
