OPEN COLUMN
History decides if leaders were right or wrong

Editor, the Tribune: Peeved again - here comes some BS from Bill Wickersham about a conference to prosecute our president for war crimes. You do know the Democratic VP nominee and other leading Democrats will go to the gallows with George W. Bush as accomplices. You don’t recall that 17 articles of surrender were ignored. The democratic regime of Iraq invited us in to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Too bad your conference wasn’t around to put on trial our Democratic presidents, as follows:

● During World War I, Woodrow Wilson sent 116,000 troops to die in Europe, and the war was almost over. Did Germany attack any territory of ours?

● World War II - Germany or Italy never attacked us, but FDR declared war on them along with Japan on Dec. 8, 1941. More than 450,000 were killed. Josef Stalin snookered FDR at Yalta in 1945, prompting the Cold War.

● Harry Truman made the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, civilian targets. More than 120,000 were killed instantly. Tens of thousands died from the fallout of those bombs over several years. Harry sent more than 36,000 to die in Korea. Did Korea attack us?

● Shouldn’t JFK and LBJ have gone to trial for sending more than 50,000 American servicemen and women to their deaths? Thousands of South and North Vietnamese men, women and children died. They never attacked us.

Our elected officials have to make tough decisions. History decides whether they are right or wrong, not a conference in Andover, Mass.

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Frank Burkett

503 N. Henry Clay, Ashland

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