To the editor:

I come from a long line of “ground-pounders.” There were Cuencas with most of the initial Spanish invasions of the Americas. My great-great-grandfather Cuenca emigrated from Mexico to serve in the Mexican colonial army in the Philippines. My great-grandfather Aguilar died of starvation during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II. My father fought the Japanese as a guerrilla resistance fighter and became a citizen by serving in the U.S. Navy. And my stepfather is a former U.S. Army officer who earned his combat infantryman’s badge in Vietnam. Consequently, my sympathies are always with the “grunts.”

No matter how much modern air power helps “shorten” wars, one fact remains: Someone must still walk in and secure the ground. Our president has given us a new Belfast, Beirut or Grozny. For the foreseeable future, a great many Americans will have to guard and patrol an occupied country, where they will be vulnerable to attack at all times. Our soldiers, sailors and Marines on the ground (and flying above it) will be tossed into this meat grinder to pay the ultimate price. It is for them — and all other casualties of war — that we must stand against this and all wars.

Most Americans, even the majority of veterans, have no face-to-face combat experience. Those, then, who condemn peace activists are no more legitimate than the cowardly chicken hawks who gave us this war. Standing against violence and mayhem, in contrast, is always legitimate — and significantly more moral.

Mike Cuenca,

Lawrence