I watched the President’s address to the nation about the planned draw-down of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. I understand that 10,000 troops are to be home by the end of this year, and 33,000, total, will be home by next summer. As a life long U.S. citizen for over 52 years, I would like to say the following about these two wars and how they relate to our nation’s history:

I truly believe that fighting World War I and World War II was absolutely necessary to our nation’s security. I truly do not, I repeat, do not believe that fighting in Korea, nor Vietnam, nor Kuwait was necessary to the security of our nation! If my understanding of the history of these wars is correct, Korea and Vietnam were fought to prevent the spread of Communism to South Korea and South Vietnam. The war in Kuwait was fought to drive Saddam Hussein out of a country that he wrongly invaded. Considering that these three countries are so, so far from the U.S., I do not, again, I do not see how these wars were even conceivably or remotely fought to protect our nation’s security! Now, the over-paid, under-worked and clueless government officials in Washington, D.C., are continuing to force tens of thousands of American troops into harm’s way for absolutely no good reason!

It is well past time for our so-called “government officials” to stop, I repeat, to stop being war-mongers and bring all of our troops home to safety and their families where they all belong!

Timothy Monroe Bledsoe

North Augusta, S.C.