Editor:

The Dec. 6 cartoon "I’ll be home for Christmas" certainly produced a lot of protest. It was obviously sarcastic and pointed, but are the facts wrong? We are sending our youth to this obscene war that the U.S. started with decisions based on false intelligence, an overly optimistic belief in quick success and with no exit strategy. There have not been nearly enough comments from this perspective.

The cartoon reiterates the same perspective as a song written during the Vietnam area titled "I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag" (Country Joe and the Fish). The song lyrics are certainly relevant today. "One, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn; next stop is Vietnam.... Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box." In this song "I Ain’t a Marchin’ Anymore," Phil Ochs wrote: "It’s always the old who lead us to the war; always the young to fall. Look at all we’ve won with a saber and a gun. Tell me was it worth it all?"

Certainly support the troops that are there, but do not forget the governmental nationalistic stupidity that put them in harm’s way.

Jeff Daly
Newton