Letter to the Editor of the Telegraph from MFSO Member Julie Anderson
February 15th, 2007
This week, the president submitted a supplemental budget request for an
additional $100 billion to be spent on the war in Iraq. While this
amount is staggering, it's not nearly as staggering as the cost in
human life that this war has taken on American families. The over 3,100
soldiers who've lost their lives in the Iraq war paid the highest
price, as have the families who loved them.
Until recently, I was like many Americans who picked up their
newspaper, read about the war in Iraq and then resumed daily life
untouched by the happenings. In January, that all changed for me. My
son, an airman in the U.S. Air Force, was deployed to Balad, Iraq. No
longer was I just an observer. No longer was this someone else's issue.
No longer could I remain silent as our president used my son's life for
his political agenda.
While you may not have been touched as
directly by the president's decision to fund this war as I have been,
you might be surprised at how affected you really are. In order to fund
his war, the president and his supporters have had to cut funds in
other programs. Funds that could have been used for Medicare, Medicaid,
education, housing, research and health care, just to name a few. The
funds to continue the war will touch each and every one of us in one
way or another.
None of us can afford to put down our
newspaper and forget about the impact this war is having on each of us.
Our elected officials are accountable to us and we must hold them
accountable. Call your congressmen and urge each of them to vote
against the supplemental appropriations request before more American
families are hurt by this war.
