Dear Senator Bayh:

I hope that you and your family are well. We wish the same for the families of Iraq.

We were particularly appalled to read that you are calling for more troops in Iraq. While we understand that you may be concerned about the safety of our troops in Iraq, we think that more troops will continue the feeding of bodies into this useless morass. We wish that you would call for more diplomacy, more conflict resolution and a reversal of the Bush approach to 9/11. If Bush and the Senate cannot do that, they need to make sure that we get people into a training process in order to be able to do it in the future.

Our goal should not be to "fight a better fight". Iraq was the wrong fight to get into, and we did it without sufficient planning to achieve a quick transfer of the form of government in Iraq from that of a cruel dictator to that of democracy.

Bush cajoled us into it with constant reminders of our loss and of our grief over 9/11 and with glossing over of the sacrifices that would be needed by all of us, not just those who are serving and by those who are unfortunately, in the way of our guns and missiles. It was a stupid and immoral move.

This is the week's report of US military deaths in Iraq. The civilian casualty record is unclear because of various difficulties in counting accurately. The death rate is high. How many deaths will be enough to feed the Bush revenge machine????? Here is the link from which the report came: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/ .

Sincerely yours,

Ellyn Stecker and Peter Smith for the Michiana Peace and Justice Coalition

Dear Rep. Chocola:

I hope that this letter finds you well and safe from your trip to Afghanistan. We hope the same for the families of those there, both of our soldiers and for those who live there.

We think that we should not be sending more soldiers to Afghanistan nor to Iraq. We have killed enough and so have they. It is time to send in those who are skilled in conflict resolution, creation of democratic structures and in cleaning up messes.

We ask that you work with the State Dept. and with the Congress to develop people with the skills of democracy and conflict resolution, not with those of killing.

This is the week's report of US military deaths in Iraq. Our soldiers who are wounded, whether in body or of mind, are many times this number. The civilian casualty record is unclear because of various difficulties in counting accurately. Their number also is estimated to be many times that of our dead. Here is the link from which the report came: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/.

Sincerely yours,

Ellyn Stecker and Peter Smith of the Michiana Peace and Justice Coalition