Editor,
In response to the letter from Adam Collingsworth published in the Daily Lobo, I have to point out that I said the attacks on the Sept. 11 were the "most vile and cowardly attack one can imagine."
If he is suggesting that using innocent civilians to attack innocent civilians with the aim of murdering innocent civilians is not the vilest thing he can imagine, well that is his limitation.
I have to admit, I can't recall the last time I was called a liar, and I laughed at this absurd charge.
I should caution young Adam that calling people liars does not advance an argument, is unbecoming, childish and his mama and Professor Berthold would not approve.
Young Adam suggests that I am somehow wrong to value American lives over all others. That is the sort of nonsense moral relativists engage in.
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If I did not value American lives above all others, I would not have served more than 20 years defending his comfortable life.
I spent an entire career defending American lives and the Constitution of the United States. I am very proud of that.
Young Adam needs to read, study, think and consider, but always keep an eye on reality, for that is where he will be living. In his studies he will discover the American experience is unique in history, offering him unmatched opportunity and freedoms.
Maybe then he will achieve awareness that there are things more important than his own life. At the risk of overstating my point, consider: war is where life and death collide in the real world.
I have smelled blood and bile, shot people, been shot at, seen bodies mutilated and turned to nothing more than goo and had teeth and bone crunching beneath my boots as I walked in an Iraqi bunker.
As a result, I have faced some demons young Adam hopefully will never know, as these demons cannot survive in the rarified atmosphere of the ivory tower.
So, while my experiences are not unique, and in some cases far less horrific than what other people have experienced, I came away with personal knowledge that suffering in war, poverty and deprivation are real and just a bomb-blast away.
I know what happened to the people in New York. I know what happened to two of my friends in the Pentagon and that they will never come home again.
I know the true costs of war. I doubt young Adam does. Finally, I know American lives are worth defending - even his.
Lt. Col. Kent D. Johnson
Retired, U.S. Air Force
