We would like to thank all our friends who sent cards or expressed sympathy for the loss of our son-in-law in Iraq. We feel for all the other families who have lost loved ones, as well as for the Iraqis whose lives have been shattered by this senseless war. We can only hope that the American population will gather the courage to stand up for what is right and insist on leaders who will behave like adults, not belligerent children. This war has already cost far more than we can afford.

More Americans now have been killed than were lost on 9/11, not to mention the thousands of innocent Iraqis who had nothing to do with that so-preventable act of terrorism. And the real costs are in more than human lives: we have allowed corrupt and power-hungry bureaucrats to send our economy and environmental protections into a decline from which we may never recover.

We are now a second rate world power, on a par with China as to government surveillance, and far behind all of Europe in living conditions. The American dollar is lower than it has ever been. This is what a “conservative” administration has done to us.

Spending on Iraq is a job killer. Had the administration chosen to stimulate our economy by spending tax dollars on development of health care, education and renewable energy, we would not be facing recession today, and none of these people would have died. More than $522 billion has been spent on the war so far — that’s $1,800 per U.S. resident in 2007 alone. Dollars spent on investment in our own country creates between 50 and 100 percent more jobs than the same money going to Iraq, and many U.S. contractors there pay no taxes at all. This means that a million jobs were lost because the Bush administration chose the Iraq sinkhole over public investment.

Surely it’s time to stop treating our young people as cannon fodder and give them a future. Our son-in-law joined the Army because he could find no other way to support his family, not because he wanted to go off and kill Iraqis out of some misguided sense of patriotism.

Let’s elect an administration that respects the Constitution, human rights, and life worldwide. Good government begins with us.

Mary Fiddler

lives in Oak Harbor.