Re: “Afghan story not a hit with readers” (Karen Peterson column, 5-20).

I so appreciate the front-page account (TNT, 5-17) of the survivors of the recent massacre of Afghani villagers. It is crucial to recognize the humanity of everyone involved in the obscenity of war and to take in the horrors that are suffered by the so-called “other.”

When will we ever learn that there is no “other,” that we are all one human family? Your featured report put a human face on the Afghani victims of our brutal, inhumane folly, and I for one am grateful.

Re: “Afghan story not a hit with readers” (Karen Peterson column, 5-20).

Peterson’s piece on reader response to the interviews with the Afghan survivors of the village massacre was sad. I’m pretty conservative, but I never took away from the report anything “anti-military.” I was impressed by the quality of the report and pleased with its balance.

On another note, Patrick O’Callahan’s Inside Opinion blog posting (TNT, 5-22) regarding the death of Walter Backstrom was also sad. Backstrom was a fine writer, and how tragic he died in a homeless shelter, perhaps unknown by the other residents as …

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Regarding the downed drone in Iran: I am ex-military and retired from 38-plus years in aerospace testing.

It seems odd that the manufacturer of the drones being used to hunt and kill the enemy, and costing untold millions of dollars, couldn’t have been equipped with a $200 self-destruct system. I’m thinking that would keep them from the hands of the Iranian and Chinese scientists.

It was great news to read (TNT, 4-27) that a division headquarters will once again be assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Veterans of the 7th Infantry Division should be pleased.

However, I think a better fit for JBLM would have been the 9th Infantry Division. The 9th ID shares 20 years of history with Fort Lewis and was the senior unit on post prior to the reactivation of I Corps.

Further, in the 1980s, the division – serving as the Army’s High Technology Test Bed and evolving into the Army’s only motorized infantry division – laid the foundation for the …

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Having read the Defense Secretary Leon Panetta apologized for the photos taken of soldiers with a suicide bomber’s body parts (TNT, 4-18), I was struck by the hypocrisy of it all.

Since the invention of the camera, soldiers have been photographed with the bodies of enemy combatants. Before the camera these scenes were commemorated in sculpture and in paintings that are now referred to as “classical art.”

Are the photos from Afghanistan gruesome? Absolutely. But we spend billions to turn our young men and women into warriors for the express purpose of killing, maiming and ultimately defeating our “enemies.” …

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How can we convict Sgt. Robert Bales of killing 17 Afghan villagers? He was obviously not in his “right mind,” given the fact that the Army makes readily available all kinds of drugs to keep the troops from being depressed and stressed and allowing them some kind of sleep. Mixing them with alcohol, as apparently Bales did, could have led to his death.

I am appalled that we are making drug-dependent people upon leaving the Army; that happened in Vietnam and is obviously happening now. Shame on us.

We need to reinstitute the draft. I bet there will then be …

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In 1992, after the first gulf war, President Bush downsized the Army to 525,000, the number of soldiers required to fight two wars simultaneously. In 1993, President Clinton decided to reduce the Army to around 475,000 to obtain a “peace dividend.”

After 9/11, the Army was woefully short of the manpower to fight the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Soldiers were faced with back-to-back combat tours with only a one-year break in between.

President Obama is leading us into that same scenario. His defense proposal cuts the Army and the Marines by around 100,000 troops. In my opinion, these large cuts …

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I was alarmed by Rep. Norm Dicks’ statement (TNT, 3-24) that Congress may have to step in to prevent those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from returning to combat zones.

I received a PTSD diagnosis as the result of a sexual assault in the military. I have been treated for the issue and have been found fit for duty. Dicks’ “helpfulness” would result in my being barred from combat duty, effectively causing me to lose my job for being raped. Is that really what they seek to do?

I can guarantee you that once word gets out that …

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