Paying for War and Peace in Persian Gulf

No one wants to believe that his/her husband or son or father, and now mother, wife or daughter, gave their life in vain. Now that the bodies will be returning to this country from the Gulf War, there will be many speeches by politicians in which those who died will be called heroes for defending their country.

I believe we have to ask if they had to die at all. Did they really die defending their country? My heart goes out to the families who are left behind. Had the leadership in this country exercised a little patience and worked toward a diplomatic settlement of the problems in the Middle East, there would not now be the horrific consequences of a needless war with untold suffering on all sides.

MARJORIE NILAND

Huntington Beach