Halfway through the stack of Tribunes that accumulated during a recent vacation, I ran across the letter written in response to a column about torture tactics.

Its author derided the anti-torture stance of “girly men” who don’t know what they’re talking about.

He asked how we could dare to question the manner in which he provided our freedom.

He referred to the debate about the definition of torture as “all this legal talk,” as though a nation of laws may not be the fine idea we believed it was.

It’s important to remember that many of the veterans who are speaking out on this issue are opposed to torture.

Among them are Gen. David Petraeus, John McCain and Colin Powell.

Veterans across the country have joined together to form organizations such as Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans Against Torture.

The letter in question implied that only veterans have the right to an opinion about the torture of detainees, and the only difference of opinion among veterans mentioned was McCain’s belief that waterboarding is, in fact, torture.

That kind of unilateral argument is the same cable news/talk radio noise that many of us are beginning to find unbearable.

Abby Fowler, Ironton