Children send moral busting letters to Iraq troops
February 21, 2005 -- An American soldier overseas is fuming over letters
he received from Brooklyn middle-school children accusing GIs of
destroying mosques and killing civilians in Iraq.
http://nypost.com/news/worldnews/40259.htm*
Pfc. Rob Jacobs of New Jersey said he was initially ecstatic to get a
package of letters from sixth-graders at JHS 51 in Park Slope last month
at his base 10 miles from the North Korea border.
That changed when he opened the envelope and found missives strewn with
politically charged rhetoric, vicious accusations and demoralizing
predictions that only a handful of soldiers would leave the Iraq war alive.
"It's hard enough for soldiers to deal with being away from their
families, they don't need to be getting letters like this," Jacobs, 20,
said in a phone interview from his base at Camp Casey.
"If they don't have anything nice to say, they might as well not say
anything at all."
One Muslim boy wrote: "Even thoe you are risking your life for our
country, have you seen how many civilians you or some other soldier killed?"
His letter, which was stamped with a smiley face, went on: "I know your
trying to save our country and kill the terrorists but you are also
destroying holy places like Mosques."
Most of the 21 letters Jacobs provided to The Post mentioned some
support for the armed forces, if not the Iraq war, and thanked him for
his service. But nine of the students made clear their distaste for the
president or the war.
The letters were written as a social-studies assignment.
The JHS 51 teacher, Alex Kunhardt, did not return phone calls, but the
school principal, Xavier Costello, responded with a statement:
"While we would never censor anything that our children write, we
sincerely apologize for forwarding letters that were in any way
inappropriate to Pfc. Jacobs. This assignment was not intended to be
insensitive, but to be supportive of the men and women in service to our
nation."
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