Letters to the Editor
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Tonight on Countdown, there was a segment about the families angry because the six trapped miners are still underground in Utah
They are angry because the rescue operation has been halted after three men were killed and six more injured in the rescue attempt.
They are angry and they are grieving and they want their loved ones back, seemingly at any cost.
I can't blame them for feeling that way.
But if I could ask them privately, with the TV cameras far away:
"How many more have to die to go in that mine to find your men?"
If ten more men die, would you say, "that's enough?"
If I could ask a question of that "spokesman" for the miner's families who said the rescuers weren't doing enough, I would ask him this:
"Would you be willing to get in that 3' diameter metal cage and let yourself be lowered 1,800 ft. into a collapsing mine drift with so little oxygen down there as to make breathing impossible? Would you go?"
And it's the same thing with those who have lost their family members in the Iraq War so far: I want to ask you, "How many more?" And "are you ready to go?"
It's a terrible thing I know, to lose someone. I know. I know.
But in your heart of hearts do you really want to make more widows, more orphans, more heartbroken mothers? Do you really want to make more burn victims and amputees and young men with tortured souls?
How many more will satisfy you? You say, "Stay until we win."
What is winning?
You say, "Stay to honor those who have already paid the price."
That's not honor you are after. It's revenge. And no amount of further casualties is going to give you the peace in your heart that you seek.
Honor your dead and your wounded and your sick at heart by bringing this goddamned mess to an end.
That's the honorable thing to do.