After reading Thomas Walker’s letter to the editor Monday, I didn’t know whether I should be reeling at his attack on deployed soldiers or envious of his ability to explain the entire vast right-wing conspiracy in just a few paragraphs. Notwithstanding his accomplishment, Mr. Walker should be ashamed.

While this nation may have forgotten the foreign policy lessons of Vietnam, its citizens have not forgotten their despicable treatment of the troops who bore the brunt of our military adventure. We eventually recognized soldiers were not responsible for our woes and vowed to never again make those who serve the object of our discontent. Soldiers now come home to a nation full of individuals who proudly thank them for their service when encountered in the airport, not to a crowd of protestors spewing spit and vitriolic insults in their direction.

We learned our lesson, notwithstanding Tom Walker. Whatever you think of abortion, the military-industrial complex, our combat operations abroad, the needy on the home front or laissez-faire economics, our soldiers aren’t to blame.

Necessity is the only metric of charity, Mr. Walker said. I await publication of his letter in opposition to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, because surely starving children in Africa are more in need than the retired old folks down in Arizona. Mr. Walker will surely make much of their predisposition to voting Republican.