In his letter, Mr. Cascino ("Current war different than past conflicts," March 28) states "...people with or without combat experience can be critical of the war and respect the uniform all at the same time." Similar sentiments are often tossed around by those who oppose the war in Iraq and all are false on their face. Because Mr. Cascino does not have the experiences that Mr. Mataka and I do, he can not realize the fallacy of trying to have it both ways. It is not possible to support the troops and at the same time advocate the failure of our mission. All of us who have worn a uniform understand that we are, in part, defined by the war in which we serve. We sweat, fight, bleed and, in some cases, die for our objective. To say that you can't support what we believe in strongly enough to choose to leave behind everything we love and go to war is to say you can't support those in uniform. Many argue that they are morally obligated to condemn the war in Iraq while paying lip-service to our armed forces because the war is for some reason wrong. They point out that the war has entered its fifth year to buttress their support for we poor, unfortunate members of the military who had no idea what we were getting into. Precisely because the war has entered its fifth year, however, their argument is flawed. An overwhelming majority of those currently on active duty have either enlisted or re-enlisted under the auspices of war.

One can not condemn what we believe in enough to die for and claim to be supportive. Let me be clear: If you don't support the mission, you don't support the troops.