Ireland, I have NEVER met a peace activist that viewed soldiers with contempt for following orders. On the other hand, I have met numerous war-mongers who insist that we do, and, sadly, many soldier and veterans that believe them.

If veterans were the only ones who made decisions about wars, there'd be a lot fewer wars.

No one hear abouts the views of the peace activists until there's a war, and precious little then. So it's easy to assume that no one was worried about the possibility of a terrorist attack on US soil. We were, and we were talking. No one was listening. The intelligence community was worried, too, but few were listening to them. My first numbed thought when I turned on the TV the morning of 9/11 was, "Oh, they finally did it."

But in regard to the attack on Iraq, there's been no evidence presented that Iraq was involved with any kind of terrorist attack on the US or our allies. Nor would he want to. The fundamentalists and Saddam's secular government would like nothing more than to take each other out. Using 9/11 as a justification for and attack on a Iraq is simply a PR ploy designed to play on the emotions of the public to drum up support for a war that is essentially unjustified.