Regarding Robert Klose’s op-ed commentary, “Iraq is the war that keeps on giving” (BDN, July 8-9); I’ve learned that whenever anyone tries to make a political point, beware of references to George Orwell’s “1984” – it’s likely someone who read the book in the 1960s and ’70s that fed right into the paranoia of the day.

If the first causality of war is the truth, them Klose has contributed to the lies and distortions that he accuses others of.

It was patently wrong for Klose to ridicule veterans, old and young, to serve a political point. Whether you agree or not, we are in a war that is not “largely invisible.” To most Americans, even though only 0.04 percent of Americans may know someone on the battlefield.

If one American is involved, it is a concern for all of us.

I am a retired Navy veteran who does not dig my uniform out of mothballs to tell young people war stories, especially to young people on active duty. Klose obviously never wore a uniform, or served a cause bigger than himself. He obviously doesn’t know veterans – if he did, he’d know that most are anti-war, as they have seen what war is, and know war. How dare he suggest that veterans want our young people to experience it.

I noted the unnamed examples that was an obvious ploy by Klose to characterize those who support the war are idiots.

Klose seems saddened by the fate of al Zarqawi. Apparently he did not see it as justice served. Instead of being glad that one of the butchers is no more, he uses that news to further ridicule those who are fighting every day to bring those that want to see the destruction of this country to account for their actions.

Throughout history, we’ve seen Klose’s kind; the appeasers of Hitler, the apologists for Stalin, the admirers of Mao. It takes a lot of courage and the will to eradicate evil. You must have leaders that so the unpopular, in order to get the job done.

FDR fought a war with all his might, without committing U.S. troops before Pearl Harbor. He knew what the stakes were.

Bush committed American power after Sept. 11, to those that would do us harm – before the Butcher of Baghdad completed that nexus of power with terrorists. It was only a matter of time, the Iraqi dictator was overwhelmed with joy at what 19 hijackers did to us. Iraq was the only country that did not send condolences and is the only country to use chemical weapons on its neighbors and its own people.

The damage was real, not concocted in the post-9-11 world we live in.

Lincoln and FDR had to use draconian methods in wars and Bush had to make the same kind of decision despite what Klose says. This is not a war he or the United States needs. It is the war we are in – and we have to fight it the best way we can.

Mark F. Ginn is a Bangor resident who retired from the U.S. Navy in 1999.