I was reading a good letter in the May 28 edition of the Whidbey News-Times entitled, “Bring them home safely,” when I came upon the words “real or pretended war.” Surely this is not speaking of World War I or World War II, everyone concludes they were real, don’t they? It wouldn’t have been the Korean War where we liberated South Korea, now one of the most successful nations in the world. We might also have liberated North Korea. Our soldiers had almost secured Pyongyang, before being called to return south, being hamstrung by the United Nations. Was it the Vietnam War, was that pretend? At least, I believe, they thwarted the advance of communism in the world.

I don’t think it meant the Gulf War, which was successful. Those who fought, and the 529 families who lost their loved ones, knew the reality of it. The continuing Afghanistan and Iraqi wars are also “not pretended.” I think we would be at war if but one airplane had been put down in our own country, and that right before our eyes. No, but four huge airliners were taken down by terrorists clever enough to use them as weapons to destroy not one, but two gigantic skyscrapers, to say nothing of the lives of the people who were inside. Thankfully the brave folks on one plane put it down themselves. They would not have called this a pretended war. They prevented the destruction of our Capitol Building or White House in Washington, D.C. where one of the four successfully destroyed a large part of our Pentagon, that too, with loved ones inside.

It is a very good thing that George Bush was president during these years. He has kept the watch, stayed the course, been a great, hard working leader of our nation. The continual pounding from the left, who wish to gain control of this country to promote their liberal agendas, has been astounding and cruel to the morale of our country and to our president. It has been a difficult seven years as we hunt these hiding, masked terrorists who don’t fight fair. They can be anywhere and from any country. We do know that they are radical Muslims and that to them, this is largely a religious war. They hate us because we are, mostly at least, a Christian country with freedoms galore and present superpower of the world.

A real or pretended war? Sadaam knew it was real, not when he was paying rewards to families of terrorists or enjoying his own statues and power in Baghdad, but when he was hiding in a little hole in the ground, scared to death and when his own people put a noose around his neck.

This very real war is ours, not George Bush’s as the liberals would have us think. They want power, but please give me another George Bush.

Sue Christensen

Oak Harbor