Letters policy
Send e-mail to letters@gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files, please, which can contain viruses); fax to 770-532-0457; or mail to The Times, P.O. Box 838, Gainesville, GA 30503. Include full name, hometown and phone number for confirmation. They should be limited to one topic on issues of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters originating from other sources or those involving personal, business or legal disputes, poetry, expressions of faith or memorial tributes may be rejected. You may be limited to one letter per month, two on a single topic. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters, columns and cartoons express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times editorial board.
To find a form to send a letter, click here
Re: Joan King’s column, "U.S. isn’t going to win war" of Dec. 15. I read this article with much concern. Ms. King starts out by saying U.S. isn’t going to "win" in Afghanistan. She has no idea what she has done to the morale of the troops already there and the ones about to deploy.
This whole thing about "I support the troops but not the war" mentality is undermining the great Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen we have there. These young men and women do not want to hear this from people like Ms. King.
The next thing she talks about is the terrain some of our troops may encounter. Apparently, she has forgotten to do her homework on our military. Our country has the 10th Mountain Division, which trains in the most remote and challenging mountains within the U.S. and some of the heaviest snow areas.
When Ms. King began to write about the history of the Vietnam War, she again forgot to do her homework. When President Johnson was in office, he did not get us out of Vietnam; he escalated the war and then didn’t allow the troops to fight the war. Most of the names on "The Wall" in Washington are there because of Johnson and his escalation.
President Nixon brought us out of Vietnam and the troops home. I believe it was called "peace with honor." I know because I was one of those troops in 1967 and I was also one of the troops that helped with the evacuation during the fall of Saigon.
I only hope some of the left-wing liberals like Ms. King someday would truly support our troops and realizes that when she writes these things it hurts and sometimes gets people killed in a combat situation.
Ron Johnson
Hoschton