To the editor,

I’d like to take Steve Henry’s letter to the editor (“Soldiers allow our lives of privilege,” Feb 7th) one step further. Yes, our soldiers lives are on the line for the privileged, but not for the privilege he thinks. We are entering the end of the era of cheap conventional oil production; Bush’s war on Iraq is part of a risky endgame designed to install a friendly regime in Baghdad and break the monopoly OPEC enjoys on oil prices. The privilege being fought for is cheap access to energy. Finally, let’s retire the guilt trip over whether protesters are supposed to be lining up dutifully in support of the U.S. military; the “superficial gestures” he derides are part of how an electorate expresses its will in a functioning democracy. The countries where citizens unquestioningly support their leader’s military adventurism are rightly deemed totalitarian... or is that what he is wishing for?


Kurt


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