Letter to the editor: Which side are you on?

I was just re-reading a letter that a friend had written to The Daily News (Los Angeles) on 12-27-06 entitled "Make Up Your Mind."

Here it is, with timeless advice for any generation:

Re: "Two wars, yet two hopes for peace" (Their Opinions, Dec. 25):

Rich Lowry quotes a Dec. 23, 1944, prayer: "Sir, this is (Gen. George) Patton talking. ... You have just got to make up your mind whose side you're on." The next day I was crossing the English Channel with the 66th Black Panther Infantry Division when one of our ships was hit by a German torpedo and more than 800 lives were lost.

I landed in Cherbourg on Christmas Day expecting to get into the Battle of the Bulge, but luckily for our division that did not happen. Unfortunately, there were approximately 80,000 casualties in that one battle among troops who were not as lucky. We are now in the most important war in our history, a war against an evil enemy whose goal is to kill all "infidels." The time has arrived when the media, politicians and the rest of us must decide whose side we are on.

Bill Zelenka
Granada Hills