First of all, this person is only saying an opinion. This person is not calling you names so stop saying he or she is unamerican. Sending troops will not stop terrorists from even coming to America. We should only fight a war when there is really a war. We do not have the man power nor the money to keep sending troops.

"Is it not about time we take care of our own country, goodness knows we have our own problems."

That's so unamerican of you. You should be ashamed of yourself.

The beauty of this country is that we can have different views of this tragedy such as Harence and Bill, but here is a third view of this. Like most people in this country I truly wish we can avoid any military conflict that will put our soldiers in unnecessary dangers. I’m not going to get into the politics of things but many Americans can agree that the war in Iraq was a lie and probably a bad idea. The war in Iraq was more about having a strategically military location and permanent presence than looking for weapons of mass destruction, and the oil was a bonus in invading Iraq. But I have to disagree about the war in Afghanistan; Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Whittle did not die for any senseless war he in fact died in the true war against terrorism. Though the people in Afghanistan may not have asked for us to be attacked unfortunately they became collateral damage once their former leaders the Taliban decided to foster Al-Qaeda. The honest truth is we need to support this war on Terrorism in Afghanistan not just for September 11, or the Twin Towers, but to prevent the next attack. Imagine terrorist attacks on a celebration like the Lakers Championship parade, or a bombing in Stonewood Mall that would be a scary scenario and we need to prevent that. I only wish that Bush would have been smart enough to make a full military attack on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to end these terrorist cells rather than waste five years chasing our tails in the wrong country. So may Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Whittle rest in peace he was a true Downey Patriot and Hero, and because of sildiers like him I can put my baby twins to sleep at night without worrying about anything else.

Harence Peterson:

You doubt that the Taliban are interested in reaching our shores anytime soon or ever? Surely you haven't forgotten September 11, 2001! They have already reached us! How dare you exploit the death of Joshua Whittle by turning this tragedy into an opportunity to espouse your views of the war. Shame on you.

Bill Morgan

Mission Viejo