Our North country paper, the Watertown Daily Times, published a moving letter on Iraq from a local family whose son was killed while serving in Iraq.

“Democrats right to seek end to immoral War” is the headline for a May 3, 2007, letter from the Davey family of Lowville, NY.

“We write in response to the letter “Defeatist Democrats are really after power,” on April 26. The writer made extremely disparaging and bizarre remarks specifially against Sen. Harry Reid and the Democratic Party in general. His comments imply that Sen. Reid and the Democratic Party are traitors for standing up against the policy of the President and standing against whatever the President is for.

“The Davey family of Lowville remains extremely proud of our son and brother, Marine Cpl. Seamus M. Davey, who was killed in action in Iraq on Oct. 21, 2005. We know that Seamus gave his life in defense of his fellow marines who were involved that day in house clearing combat operations in the Village of Albu Hyatt, Iraq. We also know directly, and from other people that knew Seamus well, that he supported free speech and right to vote.

“The letter writer stated that Seamus’ loss of life has been ‘disgraced and diminished by the words of Sen. Reid.’ The Davey family has taken great offense at this comment. Cpl Davey served his country and lost his life believing in all the good principles inherent in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We know that he willingly served, trusting in his fellow Marines and the chain of command up to and including the president of the United States.

“That trust, we feel, has been broken from the top down. We mourn Seamus’ loss as we mourn all U.S. servicemen and women who have died due to service in Iraq. We feel that the trust and credibility of our elected leaders who initiated this war is now nil. Seamus’ life was indeed wasted in an illegal and immoral action, in violation of clear sense, patience and diplomacy, that has been shown by the Bush administration.

“We applauded Sen. Reid and all others in Congress who have now the political and moral courage to bring an end to this war. It is clear to us that the President has no intention of of stopping the U.S. military occupation of Iraq while keeping our armed forces in the midst of a civil war that the Iraqi leadership has shown no political collective courage to stop.

“As we mourn for Seamus, a devastating loss for him and us, we wish no more families, American or Iraqi, to have to go through the grief that we have endured daily since Oct. 21, 2005.
We support the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq as soon as possible and provision of all necessary funding for our troops’ health, education and economic needs when they return.
We also ask all Americans to demand implementation of safeguards to prevent American foreign policy from ever again making a mistake such as the disaster that is Iraq today. Seamus’ loss will be not be in vain if America returns to civility and is strengthened by lessons learned from this darkest mark on our history.”

Signed,
Derek and Lorene Davey
Lowville