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June 8, 2001 George W. Bush
Dear Mr. President, Fifty-seven years ago this week the largest amphibious assault force ever assembled stormed ashore on the beaches of Normandy. Of all the images that reach out to me, two are never far away. One is of a heavy-laden soldier we do not know falling lifelessly in the sand. The blood red surf washes over him and he is carried gently back into the sea from whence he came. The other is of General Eisenhower walking among young men about to meet their fate. He could have stayed in London, but found peace in the only place that soldiers about to enter combat can ever find it: among other soldiers. I think that is where you would have been too, had you faced the same awesome task the General faced. Soldiers of another kind are likely to fall this summer Mr. President, not on distant sandy beaches but in the West's deadly National Forests. Dressed in yellow suits and armed with axes and shovels they will face the fury of forest fires as powerful as the atomic blasts that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And as if to remind us of D-Day, they too will jump and walk into hell. And when the going gets tough, they will call in air strikes and bombers loaded with fire retardant will swoop low over the treetops. Radios will crackle with messages from command posts behind the lines and other aircraft will assess the damage and decide where to attack next. This is war Mr. President. It comes complete with sound and fury and blood and sweat and death and body bags. The only difference between our war in the West and other wars fought and won on foreign soil is that this one does not seem to have an ending. We keep fighting the same old battles over and over again, summer after summer. And year after year it gets worse. Twenty-three thousand western communities now lie in the field of fire Mr. President. Twenty-three thousand, many no larger than the French hamlets our boys freed a house at a time. Fear is everywhere. Many have lost everything, including hope. We need you on the front lines with us this summer Mr. President. We need you to do what General Eisenhower did. Walk among us, comfort and lead us. Confront the propagandists who say this is a good war because these terrible fires are all part of nature. If this is a good war then who benefits? Whose life is made better by deer running by on fire, by fish boiled alive in streams, by old growth forests incinerated, by neighborhoods burned down to their foundations, by heat so intense it can crack boulders and vaporize birds in flight, by suffocating smoke, by bodies maimed and lives lost. Step before the cameras Mr. President. Ask the propagandists who benefits. Ask what victory lies in forests burned to the ground and hopes burned to ashes. And who will decide how this war should be waged? Will it be like Vietnam Mr. President, with a fearful and politically motivated Congress calling the shots while rioters within earshot tear away at the nation's fabric, or will we turn to those who know how to win our war? Will we ask those who have the most experience with forest fires and their underlying causes to take over the fight, or will we continue to risk lives, communities and forests for the sake of political expediency, picking up the pieces after each firefight, then repeating the same terribly costly mistakes again and again. It does not have to be this way Mr. President. This war is winnable. The scientific know-how, on-the- ground skills, technology, cultural connection, sense of history, and battle-tested experience are all out there Mr. President, just as surely as French resistance fighters waited in the darkness behind the hedgerows of Normandy. Who better to ask to help than those with the most to lose? The fire experts fear this fire season will be worse than last year - and last year was the worst in a half-century. This much we know for certain. Minus a new battle plan, the West's fabled National Forests will burn to the ground. It is only a matter of time. Two billion taxpayer dollars have been spent since last fall cleaning up after last summer's fires and getting ready for this fire season. But as in Vietnam, most of the money has been spent on a dog and pony show designed to convince the American people we are winning. We are not. And this is not Saigon Mr. President. We cannot airlift the West to safety. We have to stand and fight. Losing is not an option. I am thus appealing directly to you for help for the 23,000 western communities that now lie in harm's way. Help us drive these terrible wildfires from our forests. Lead us into battle Mr. President. Be our Ike. Sincerely, Jim Petersen
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