Congress: Army officer sees it differently

Joseph Moreland (Letters, Sept. 4) wrote his world view as a Navy enlisted person of 24 years, on the votes taken by Congressman Rick Larsen during this session of Congress. As an officer with 31 years in the Army I have a totally different take on Congressman Larsen’s responsible voting record regarding the military and civil rights.

The United States is not a military state. Placing military reservists and national guard troops on the boarder is just plain stupid. First it is undermining the mission readiness of the military. If troops are placed at airports, at bus stations, at train and ferry terminals, along the Canadian and Mexican boarder, on the Pacific rim, the Atlantic rim, the Gulf rim, and in the aircraft flying overhead, there will be no military for any other mission even against the elusive terrorists overseas. To have voted for such a bill would have been irresponsible.

Second, to deport “alien criminals” without any form of due process other than the Attorney General declaring someone a person of interest or of suspected ties and thereby deporting them denies the very protection to all that we are supposed to uphold.

In our eagerness to feel secure, we are forgetting that freedom and liberty are the very reasons we and the military exist and we consider ourselves Americans. Thank you Congressman Larsen for making some difficult decisions during this troublesome time.

Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer USA, ret

Langley

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