Your headline on a Feb. 1 letter was "You can't oppose war and support the troops"; although that may have been close to what the writer proposed, the actual words were yours.

Is that a statement of opinion, an argument based on reason or a proposal for an enforceable law? One never knows in this age of government censorship, surveillance and control; it might be the last.

Whichever: It's dead wrong. I support the troops, in that I wish each of them well as a self-owning human being, yet I oppose the war. Here's how I do what you said was impossible.

Every single American in uniform joined his or her unit voluntarily. All therefore contracted to submit themselves to government orders for a specified period in exchange for pay and benefits provided by money confiscated under threat of force from friends and neighbors known as "taxpayers"; and in the full knowledge that those orders might include commands to go and kill human beings they had never met.

That is utterly reprehensible in every aspect and on every part - except that of the taxpayer, who has little choice.

Contrary to the letter writer's opinion, war does not "bring peace" except in the tautological sense that peace takes its place when it ends; there has never been a good war or a bad peace. There have been many examples in which one war sowed the seeds for the next.

So, like any thinking person, I oppose this and every other war. Do I, though, support those who prostituted their morality for a share of the loot stolen from their neighbors? Yes, certainly. I support giving each the opportunity to correct that gross error and resign immediately from the monstrously unethical organization into which they have sold themselves - along with a ticket home paid for personally by the commander who deployed him or her.

Since the contract (to serve in uniform) was a contract to kill on command in exchange for stolen money, it was fraudulent from top to bottom and therefore void and so can in no way inhibit that resignation. If government people didn't like it, they could always initiate half a million courts martial.

JIM DAVIES

Newbury

(For the record, the headline on the earlier letter was taken from this sentence: "You cannot say you support the troops but not war." - Ed.)