To Tom Hayden

I recall getting on a diesel submarine in NYC with a black armband with the white numbers 40,000. The "activist" who gave us them got into an argument with the deck officer because, at the time, "only" 38,000 were dead in the Vietnam Conflict (unlike Iraq never a declared war). When I think of those turbulent days around NYC (Quebec separatists, Weathermen, radical Israeli supporters, and the doctor and nurse from Vietnam protesting on Madison Ave against our hospital bombing, I later met a B-52 co-pilot who crawled out of the "DMZ") I think we should make a number, almost any number available to the Iraqis to represent our intention to withdraw, instead of, as intelligence we screwed up in Mogadishu and dropped leaflets which translated "We are here to enslave you" due to poor linguistic talents which we still have in that part of the world, and would make a peaceful idea. Afghanistan? We bombed a hospital there twice if you recall.