Destructive war

The revelation that soldiers are returning from Iraq with the terrible skin disease, leishmaniasis (news story, Dec. 19), is the latest horror among many that this ill-conceived war has spawned. The long list includes the death or maiming of thousands of American and Iraqi combatants and civilians, the torture and abuse of prisoners, the use of white phosphorous weapons and the use of depleted uranium shells that is causing incredible environmental damage and radiation poisoning. Add to all that severe damage to the mental health of many Iraq war veterans -- a problem we will be dealing with for many years to come.

James Madison, our fourth president, said "war contains so much folly as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason; and if anything is to be hoped, everything ought to be tried." The truth of those words has been demonstrated many times in the past 200 years, and the current debacle was widely predicted in months prior to the invasion of Iraq. Our political leaders refused to listen or to learn from past history and started a war that has caused and continues to cause great suffering.

It has been said that the most important lesson of history is that nobody ever learns history's lessons. Words of an antiwar song from the Vietnam War-era still resonate: "When will they ever learn?"

When will they ever learn?

Joe Burton

Raleigh