I sent this letter to the Globe yesterday in response to the general's letter that I have attached after mine.

To the Editor:

General Brooks is wrong (June 23, 2005 letter "When a child asks about the military"). While I am not surprised that a career military man believes we need force to protect our freedom, imagine if young men and women all said no to war.

We know now that the war in Iraq is a lie. We know the consequence of those lies is over 1,700 people - mostly young - dead from the United States. Almost 13,000 wounded. Over 100,000 Iraqis killed. Imagine if we all said no, we are not going to fight, we will not go.

My father thought he fought in World War II so his children would not have to go to war. I was sent to Vietnam when I was 20 years old and I am still haunted by the experience, 37 years later. If we are to survive, we must find other ways to solve our conflicts. The cost on the living and the dead is too great. And I feel less safe as a result of this war and I am angry that our government is using the war on terrorism to diminish our freedoms.

War is not the answer. Force and might do not make right. Work for peace; please, before it is too late.

Mark Alston-Follansbee
Concord

When a child asks about the military June 23, 2005

JOAN VENNOCHI wrote about her emotional struggle with her son's question about serving his country and her concerns as a parent in supporting his desire to do so (op ed, June 14). Those of us in uniform recognize the struggle, having experienced it many times.

Many have experienced the same struggle again as parents. Not to mention the many times during our term of service that we have had to turn to a spouse or a child and answer their questions: ''Why you? Why can't someone else go instead?" Were you to ask any one of us, you would probably receive an answer like ''because the nation needs me" or ''because I am willing to protect our way of life" or ''because it is my duty that I have sworn to uphold."

So Vennochi has experienced something with which the military is well-acquainted. The scary part is that there really are hazards associated with protecting our freedoms. But what should give her comfort, and what she might have told her son, is how hazardous life would be if young women, and young men like her son, all said ''not me; not in this war, not in any war."The future would be worse than she thinks.
VINCENT K. BROOKS
Brigadier General
US Army Chief of Public Affairs
Washington
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