Having sacrificed five-plus years out of our lives to fight World War II, and to the many friends and shipmates who lost their lives protecting America, the country we love, I feel both helpless and disappointed at the lack of common sense being used by our elected officials of both parties.

Since I hear my friends and others complain about the stupid law that tells use we must vote Democrat or Republican in primaries, regardless of how we might feel about the candidate, the voters must have been asleep when that law slipped through.

Almost every day we read about another elected official using their position of power to feather their nest at the expense of the American public.

The lack of common sense of both parties in handling our approach to other countries, both diplomatic and militarily, borders on idiocy.

My heart goes out to our young people in Iraq, fighting a war that’s impossible to win. May God bless and keep them from harm. We should have learned this lesson in Korea and Vietnam, but we did not.

GEORGE W. HORTON

Arlington