Like many people, I was disturbed by this display of ignorance and blind patriotism celebrated in your article (Feb. 25, “Army soldier gets hero’s welcome home from Iraq). Though we are certainly glad that this soldier returned safely, pretending the Iraq war is a war like any other is a gross deception.

The fact is this soldier had no legitimate business in iraq. Proof that the Bush administration defrauded congress and the American people into launching an attack on a nation that was no threat to the US is already in the congressional record. As a result of the US invasion, more than a million Iraqis have needlessly lost their lives. Four million more are internally displaced. That’s not a matter of opinion, that’s reality.

The illicit nature of the US invasion has damaged not the Iraqis but the US military. At least 5,000 troops have gone AWOL and many more soldiers than were killed in combat have taken their own lives because of the trauma they suffered in Iraq.

Fraud is a crime. Illegal war is the most serious crime of all. The only reason our leaders have gotten away with these crimes is because reporters like you, who are charged with speaking truth to power, completely fail to do so.

Carol Davidek-Waller, Kirkland