
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991                   TAG: 9102180321
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A/11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

OBJECT TO BASHING QUAYLE FOR PAST ACTIONS

I DID NOT vote for Bush and Quayle, but since they were elected by the majority, I have felt it my duty to rally behind them. This does not mean that I agree with every decision they make. I am quick to protest if I don't; however, I feel that bashing is another situation.

What Barbara White (letter Jan. 9) calls Dan Quayle's avoidance of service occurred some 20 years ago. And since when did belonging to the National Guard constitute non-service? Being in reserve status doesn't preclude being called into action. Those men and women to whom the vice president was speaking in Saudi Arabia can testify to that.

In Vietnam, we were in a no-win conflict. Men and women were being sacrificed for a lost cause. Men were defecting to Canada to avoid being victimized in this way. When the conflict finally ended, some veterans had been in Vietnam for 10 years and, tragically, some may still be there.

As for frequently voiced concern that Quayle might become president, we could only hope he wouldn't create an Iran/Contra affair or savings-and-loan scandal; give away a Panama Canal along with a gift of $5 billion; precipitate a Watergate and be forced to resign; commit our young men and women to a 10-year war they were not allowed to win; entertain sex goddesses in the White House; or set up a Bay of Pigs disaster. These are only a few of the mistakes made by previous presidents. Give the man a break!

HELEN A. MARTIN

ROANOKE

by CNB