As a veteran, I’ve been reflecting on the reasons we have for choosing our next president. One is whom do we trust to deploy the men and women of our armed forces.

During my life, we’ve deployed our military to repel an aggressor (Korea and Kuwait), prevent the overthrow of a friendly government (Vietnam) and ethnic cleansing (Bosnia). In some cases, we found that the mistaken decisions and an unwillingness to admit that the reasons for the deployment were flawed or outright manufactured unnecessarily cost the lives of our brave men and women.

One would think that we had learned the lesson of Vietnam and we would not be repeat that tragedy. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Like Vietnam, the original reasons for sending our troops have been shown to be flawed. Yet, for more than five years, we continue to deploy our troops to Iraq, with no end in sight.

I’m not adverse to deploying troops. I am adverse to sending them in harm’s way based on flawed information and continuing to do so despite learning that our actions were unfounded.

In the future, when we decide to send our men and women into harm’s way, we must have a clearly defined mission, concrete political and military objectives, and ensure that our troops have the resources, support and equipment they need to protect themselves and fulfill their mission.

I’m going to vote for the person who will bring our troops home, return Iraq to its people and carefully consider all options before committing our troops in the future. That person is Barack Obama.

-Warren Huckabay, Lt. Col. Retired

Sammamish