Printed in www.gvillesun.com

As a local organizer for CodePINK, Women for Peace, I want to stop Clair Chaffin's smear campaign against our group (Nov. 1).

 We hold a weekly silent vigil outside Walter Reed Army Hospital because we want those soldiers who have paid such a horrific price to be kept close to our hearts and minds. Whether you agree with CodePINK's solution to bring the troops home now, or not, we are sincerely concerned about our injured soldiers and we demand that the Bush administration provide the care they deserve.

 We want Bush to honor all the veterans, including the active-duty reserves and the National Guard with the same full benefits and commitment to long term health care that other veterans receive. At the least, Bush should continue paying the wounded veterans and not deduct lost military equipment from their checks.

 Bush says he honors the vets while at the same time plans to cut veterans benefits. For the rest of these soldiers' lives they will ask if the price they paid was truly for God and country or for what?

 The Iraq war is based on a web of lies. Bush's illegal occupation of Iraq and to date the killing of over 30,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children, makes Bush, Inc. the terrorist. Speaking out, demanding the truth, loving the warrior, not the war, takes courage and this is what CodePINK is about.

Jacqueline Betz,
 Gainesville