Operation Desert Storm has given a whole sub-culture in this nation a new lease on life; the pacifist, moist-eyed groups that lost all touch with reality some time back. This was evident at the anti-war march Feb. 16 and the subsequent article written on Feb. 18.

Two particular groups, the College Democrats and Students and Youth Against Racism, seem to be the most passionate in their condemnation of President Bush and the military. As usual, their arguments are devoid of fact and full of emotion.

Monica Somocurcio, of Students and Youth Against Racism, seems to be in desperate need of a reality check. She made ridiculous claims that the "pentagon criminals" had deliberately bombed the shelter full of civilians and that "targeting civilians has been part of the Pentagon's policy for years."

First of all, if we wanted to kill civilians deliberately I can guarantee you that Baghdad would have disappeared a few weeks back.

Second, killing civilians just wouldn't make any military sense. It is in the best interest of the coalition forces to spare civilian targets so that Iraq is not completely gutted and left open to other regional players in the area. The fact that the bunker was hit by smart weapons proves this fact. If the United States military was a psychotic baby-killing group it would have just flattened the entire area with good old-fashioned (and much cheaper) iron bombs.

As for the journalists not finding anything of military nature I ask you if you think the Iraqis would be stupid enough to show them. Common sense says that the command and communications center was on the lowest floor sealed off from the rest of the complex by blast doors and other protective measures. I doubt the Iraqis have even cleared enough debris to reach that level.

Dave Falchek gives the usual liberal spiel about what a terrible job George Bush is doing and how this war is to be blamed on him. If Dave would do a little research he might find out that it was the great Democratic savior, Jimmy Carter, who pronounced in 1978 that the United States would use all means (including nuclear weapons) to defend the Persian Gulf and our oil interests there. Do you think Michael Dukakis could have done any better? I shudder to think what a man that couldn't run a small state could have done to this country.

Members of my organization have been re-called to active duty and many more await on stand by. We know the price of a ground war and wish that it was not necessary. However, we are not so naive as others who believe that appeasement is sometimes justifiable.