Can someone explain to me why we’re experiencing a manpower shortage in the Middle East? We’ve been militarily involved there since just after 9/11 with the invasion of Afghanistan’s Operation Enduring Freedom to hunt down Osama Bin Laden. Remember him? Mr. Rosen’s letter of 9/1 fails to mention him even once and he is the self-proclaimed mastermind of the terror attack. If half the country really believes in our involvement in the Mid East, there should be (according to my almanac) 15 to 20 million young men and women willing to put their money where their mouths are and join up. I think they are all taking a tip from our chicken hawk leaders and letting someone else do their dirty work. During the Vietnam conflict 234 sons of Senators and Congressmen came of draft age, 28 were in Vietnam, 19 saw "combat" and one was wounded. Some record of sacrifice for those who prosecuted a war which was seen as "unwinnable" by Secretary of Defense McNamara as early as 1966. Don’t be fooled again. This President is just as vain as Johnson and Nixon and will go to any extreme to become a war winning President, including sacrificing our youth in a never-ending quagmire of religious in-fighting. The only way to hold terrorism at bay is to cooperate with the rest of the world. Consider this; we’ve sent the bulk of our armed forces halfway around the world and are calling out the reserves just to hold and occupy one country whose Army basically rolled over when we attacked. Now, if we are really attacked our defense options are limited and probably nuclear. This is true madness.

Frank Gangloff

Amityville