To the editor:

After taking part in a small demonstration against the Iraq war and recruiting in our high schools, I’ve been thinking about public opinion. Despite the fact that a minority of U.S. citizens think the war was justified and only a small minority think the war is being pursued competently, and despite the fact that the nation voted quite clearly for an end to the war – despite all this, the war goes on and has received full funding for another year.

Given all this, how is it that people are not taking to the streets in outrage? Where is the angry protest, the sense of betrayal, the condemnation of politicians either deluded enough, or timid enough, or self-serving enough not to stop our part in this tragedy?

I think the answer is simply that the cost of this war has remained within acceptable limits. One hundred or so American deaths each month apparently is tolerable. If we had racked up 58,000 deaths and anyone of military age was subject to a draft – as in the Vietnam War – the situation might be different.

If you are not now actively opposing this war, I would challenge you to think about what would be, for you, an unacceptable level of American deaths. As a point of reference, an average of 84 American troops have died monthly for the past 12 months, and over 34,000 have been evacuated for medical reasons since the war began.

Joe Douglas,

Lawrence