The Springfield News-Leader (Missouri)
August 11, 2005
I am the mother of an active-duty Marine who will shortly be deployed to Iraq. I'm packing my bags to head down to Crawford, Texas, to join Cindy Sheehan, a Gold Star mother who lost her son in Iraq. She is sitting outside our president's home, waiting to meet with him so he can explain to her what the "noble cause" is that her son died for.
I have a few simple questions I would like to ask him myself.
Our troops are for the defense of this country. There are no WMDs. Why are we still in Iraq?
Has he read the Downing Street memo yet? I have. I would like to know why, if they knew there were no WMDs there, they didn't bother to inform the American people of that at the time.
My father was occupying the seats of one of those airplanes in Vietnam that our president didn't have the time to fill. He didn't make it back. I refuse to watch my son go off for a very bad replay of Vietnam without a fight.
This president has wrapped himself in the honor of our armed forces to advance his agendas and deflect legitimate questioning of his policies. I think it's way past time he was held to account for this. So I'm headed to Texas to join Cindy.
Valarie Fletcher, Seymour
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