To the editor:

I take my hat off to Bob Dole and his fellow combat veterans of World War II that were honored here last week. I listened to the stories in the Memory Tent told by the vets, who did not claim to be heroes. The stories I heard were about “just doing their job,” and many felt lucky just to make it back alive.

They told about some of the 450,000 Americans who did not come home, and it is these men to whom we owe a great debt. I wonder what these heroes would think about the current group of chicken hawk profiteers fostering the war of the week on anyone weak enough or with a valuable commodity to steal.

The “Greatest Generation” of Americans will be the one that realizes that our best national interest is not served by forcing a military empire on a skeptical world. This approach of world domination is not sustainable, and a quick survey of history will show how the last “pre-emptive war” (the one started by Germany), turned out in 1945.

We have much more to offer the world than smart bombs. Right here in Kansas we have exportable agricultural technology, which can be the key to helping countries feed themselves. Our industrial sector has the ability to help countries develop clean energy and sustainable manufacturing centers. Our expertise in forest management can turn around centuries of depletion in Third World countries.

World leadership has never been achieved through fear and intimidation and it is obvious to the rest of the world that we have lost the moral high ground and will have a difficult time recovering it.

Michael Morley,

Lawrence