Letter: Mr. Know It All doesn't

Editor, Daily News:

It must be nice to be omnipotent — to sit in judgment and convict with certainty before investigations are concluded and facts established. But this is what letter-writer Michael Rodriguez has done, using factoids gleaned from the Internet to excoriate our Marines in Iraq.

Has Mr. Rodriguez walked in the boots of an 18-year-old Marine in the middle of a hot zone whose job description is to take a bullet for $14,000 a year? Has he felt the kind of fear, anxiety, stress, anger and pride that they do, or their commitment to God, country, freedom and democracy?

Has he ever been in a position of knowing that the 6-year-old approaching him on the street could be booby-trapped to kill him? Or the 4-year-old to whom he is offering candy may stretch out a hand holding a grenade — with the pin already pulled? Or that around the next corner an improvised explosive device (IED) hidden in the body of a dead dog may blow up his Humvee, and his buddies along with it?

Marines in Iraq face these situations every day as they carry out their mission to protect people like Mr. Rodriguez back home. But does Mr. Rodriguez appreciate their sacrifice, their courage, their valor?

No, he does not. He calls them "war criminals" who must be punished.

Perhaps Mr. Rodriguez might think twice next time before passing judgment on men in whose shoes he has not walked, and whose boots he is not fit to kiss.

Sally Barker , Naples