Editor:

President Bush is right; the war in Iraq is winnable. There is no way that the insurgents can beat us.

However, I would say that at the rate we are going, we will probably lose the war. Why? Because there is simply not enough support at home.

Lots of people talk about supporting the troops, but they really don’t understand what they are talking about.

The “we support the troops but not the war” argument holds no water with me or anyone else in uniform.

We are military professionals. No one duped us into joining up.

To say that the best way to “support” us is to “bring us home” is like saying that we somehow need saving.

We don’t need to be saved from anyone. Why would we? Are we too soft to endure combat? Are we more afraid of death than those who have served before us? Are we such cowards?

Military professionals today, as in ages past, have come to terms with the fact that death is part of the deal.

We didn’t lose Vietnam to the Russians or the Viet Cong; we lost to the American public. Our homegrown American tradition of protesting political decisions defeated our other great tradition of winning every war we ever fight.

When large groups of people gather here in Salt Lake City or Washington, D.C., to protest the war effort, they do more to hurt the morale and welfare of the troops overseas than an army of insurgents with suicide vests ever could.

Jeffrey C. Marston

Sophomore, Middle East Studies

Staff Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps