Words to ponder

As Congress debates the war in Iraq this week, lawmakers who are inclined to cast critics of President Bush's "surge" as spineless, insufficiently patriotic or unfriendly to the U.S. military would do well to consider these words from a few distinguished Americans during the Vietnam War:

Gen. William Wallace Ford, a veteran of both world wars and a developer of Army aviation systems used in Vietnam:

"In my judgment, the war in Vietnam is wrong politically, militarily and morally. It is an immoral business, and we shouldn't be in it. We are crucifying our souls. We are pursuing a war that has no moral or political justification."

Gen. David Shoup, Medal of Honor recipient and former commandant of the Marine Corps:

"I don't think the whole of Southeast Asia, as related to the present and future safety of the people of this country, is worth the life or limb of a single American. I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of oppressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own."

Gen. Robert L. Hughes, a much-decorated here of World War II:

"We are prosecuting an immoral war. There is not a piece of real estate over there that has any particular strategic value to the United States...This is one hell of a war to be fighting. We must disengage from this tragic mess."

Gen. Hugh B. Hester, decorated veteran of both world wars and Korea:

"The so-called draft-dodgers and war protestors are not the enemies of our people, nor are they letting our boys in Vietnam down. On the contrary, they are the best friends of both. The real enemies of our people and the boys in Vietnam are those who originally plotted the war of aggression there and those who continue to promote it."