Salute to soldiers.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: Brief Article

"WAR IS A TERRIBLE THING, AND IT brings terrible tragedies to the people who are involved in it," General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the packed ballroom at the Brown Palace.

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Sitting there, among the first Colorado Springs and Fort Carson soldiers to return from the war in Iraq, you had to be proud of their effectiveness, of their bravery, and of the sacrifices made by the U.S. armed forces that made such quick work of deposing the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.

And you had to be proud of the metro Denver business community for rallying to show its support of the military, which plays such an important role in the economy of the state: from training cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to making rockets to launch our space shuttles and other satellites.

The visit from Myers was put together in a quick two weeks by the staff of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and it looked like 400 business leaders made it to the lunch--as it happened--to welcome the soldiers back home.

Anybody who knows me knows, too, that I didn't agree with the justification for the war...