Freedom's considerable cost

To the editor:

In answer to Robert Polack Jr.: Freedom is not free. Consider the untold numbers of men and women who have died or have partial bodies. They are why everyone in America has the freedom we have today. Freedom costs.

Would we rather fight for freedom over there or here on our own soil? How many innocent children, women and men were tortured and killed by Saddam Hussein? How many are in one grave? Weapons of mass destruction were shipped out of the country. Iraq was a safe haven for terrorists.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's heart tears apart every time an American soldier dies or is wounded. The reason she is supporting the administration is because it is the right thing to do. We don't need politics when we are at war. People like Howard Dean, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy would rather boost their political possessions and lose the war in Iraq.

Continue on, Representative Emerson. I know criticism comes with the job.

HAROLD REED

Leopold, Mo.