Dear Nederland Neighbors,

In May 2004, I wrote a letter to The Mountain-Ear about the upcoming war in Iraq.  Today,  I am writing to the teens and parents of Nederland about war preparations for Iran, about young citizens serving in the National Guard and perhaps being mis-used in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington DC, about planned miss-use of US troops in Venezuela, and about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, I.C.E., at the Mexican and Canadian Borders.

In light of the stunning numbers of suicides among returning American soldiers, as a lifelong member of Nederland’s Mountain Forum for Peace, I am writing another plea to teens and their parents. Don’t go.

An open letter to Nederland families,

I spoke with a teacher from Nederland Middle/Senior High School this past weekend because she knows I am worried about a reinstatement of the military draft. Both of us wound up with tears in our eyes, talking about young people from Nederland, primarily young men, who are enlisting in the armed services.

Please, don't go. I think I can say to you what perhaps your parents cannot. You are too precious, and this war in Iraq too ill-conceived, for you to risk life and limb seven thousand miles from home. The United States will be no safer with you in Iraq, but you will surely be very unsafe there.

An old 60s folk singer, Phil Ochs, wrote, "It's always the old that lead us to the fight, always the young that fall”. That's the truth, Old Rumsfeld, and Old Powell and Old Chaney are sitting at big shiny desks playing at war, but they are staying safely behind those desks, ordering teenagers into the mouth of the dragon in Iraq.

Don't go. That's what happened in Vietnam when we were teenagers, and for all we know it's what's happened since time began, in Sparta and Rome and Constantinople and throughout feudal fights in Europe, Japan, Central and South America. Big guns, uniforms, sleek fighter jets, old men luring young men with airplanes, school tuition, and adventure.

Hey, there's no place on earth where the war-makers ever seriously calculated the loss of life, and called off a war.

Don’t go. Especially do not believe that you can enlist and NOT get sent to Iraq. Once you've signed on the dotted line, you are not free to disagree with orders. Recently, a young man who attempted to conscientiously object to his service in Iraq, was tried as a deserter and will do jail time. Jail, while those who badly misbehaved at Abu Ghraib, torturing and humiliating prisoners, will walk away from their service, dishonored but free.

Don't go, because the wounds to your hearts and souls will never heal. You may escape without a scratch from Iraq, but you will see things and do things that will weigh you down for the rest of your lives no matter how long you live and how good you live life as a civilian.

Don't go. Stay at home and learn a lot, love a lot. Fight forest fires and fix cars. Build a house with Habitat, support your friends, find a true love, run for office, read a book, go back to school, run a race, rescue hikers. Find excitement in working with your neighbors in town.  Become a teacher.

Don't go, because you'll come home hoping for recognition of how hard you worked, how scared you were, how energetically you did what you were told, how simple it seemed at first,  but how confused you became, but the very old men who send you to Iraq will deny they ever really believed war was a good idea. They'll cut your benefits, they'll want you to hide your wounds, and they'll hide the bodies of your buddies who don't make it home alive.

Don't go. Don't enlist. Don't go even if you are drafted. There are adults who can help you to resist. Be a war resister.

Ellen Moore

Nederland