I am the daughter of a disabled World War II Veteran. The wife of a veteran. And a veteran myself. Twelve years ago I was an army major in Northern Iraq helping to repatriate the Kurds into their ravished homeland. Those who survived the winter passage across the mountains to come home lived in tents and cooked meager rations over open fires. Their water was polluted. In the absence of civilization, the gentle hills near Zakho were overrun by packs of wild dogs. We were kept awake at night by small explosions, as the dogs tripped the mines that salted those hills. Boom. Boom. Boom. A dog or a child? By day small boys would run up to us in the street and ask, "Mister, Mister, buy a grenade?"

I was never fired upon in combat. The only people I ever shot were with a camera. But I saw the ravages of war first hand and it is something I never want to see again.

We Americans think that was an easy war - easy for us. After all, there were only - only! - 148 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines killed in battle. Another 145 killed in accidents. Four hundred and sixty seven wounded in action. All told, less than a thousand. Pretty good odds for saving the free world. And now we're ready to do it again. Piece of cake.

Last week we lost seven astronauts. The president flew to Houston in Air Force One and sat with the families. I listed to the memorial service on the radio. We all know their names, we all mourned their loss.

But who remembers the names of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines lost in the Gulf War? Were their pictures on the front page of every newspaper in the world? Were their funerals televised? No. But we remember them.

We remember them because they are our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers. He was Johnny who mowed our lawn when he was a teenager. She was Maria who sat next to us in algebra class. He was Jose whose daughter was in daycare with my daughter, and Tim who went to A&M on a full ride scholarship. They are our friends and neighbors, our nieces and nephews, our students and our teachers. Yes, we remember them.

And I wonder, how can the politicians in Washington forget? How can they treat their lives so cheaply? A week or so ago President Bush declared "The Game is over." This has never been a game. These are not toy soldiers, not avatars in a computer simulation, not chips on a gaming table. The people in the military are flesh and blood, our husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, the young people of this community.

The people know that now is not the time for war. According to a New York Times poll, 59 percent of Americans said they believed the president should give the United Nations more time. Sixty-three percent said Washington should not act without the support of its allies, and 56 percent said Mr. Bush should wait for United Nations approval.

There are alternatives to war. We need to pursue every last one of them before we sacrifice the precious lives of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.

When I spoke of US casualties I only told you part of the story. It is true that 760 Americans were killed or wounded in battle. But there are thousands, HUNDREDS of thousands who were crippled in quite another way.

In May the Veterans Administration issued a report about Gulf War casualties. Almost seven hundred thousand people like me served in the Gulf War. Of those, more than TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND have filed VA claims for war-related disabilities. The VA has approved the claims of 159,238 of these veterans, awarding them lifetime medical care, compensation, and pensions based on the extent of their medical problems. That is almost 30 percent of those who served in the Gulf War.

The disability-rate for World War II was 8.6 percent. The rate for the Korean conflict ran even lower, at 5 percent. The rate for the ten-year-long Vietnam War, where 58,000 U.S. soldiers died and many others were injured or developed war-related illnesses, was 9.6 percent. What's going on here?

The cause of their medical problems is complex. Only a few months ago, the Pentagon sent out a press release stating 140,000 U.S. soldiers were exposed to low-levels chemical agents in Iraq during the Gulf War. There are legitimate concerns about the effects of the vaccines and pills given to the deployed soldiers. Iraq is littered with more than 300 tons of radioactive depleted uranium dust and shrapnel from weapons used by the United States in the 1991 Gulf War. The toxicity of the burning oil wells is horrendous. Although the exact cause may not be clear, the results are - more than 150 thousand disabled veterans.

And this is the still poisoned battlefield into which we are sending our soldiers, the sons and daughters of San Antonio. AND WE DON'T HAVE TO. There are alternatives to war. This is not a game - at least not a game I have any intention of playing.

One final irony. ONE DAY of a war with Iraq will cost 1.1 BILLION dollars. Veterans Administration officials estimate that their agency is some 1.9 billion dollars short of the money it needs to care for the nearly 5 million veterans already enrolled in the system. We can apparently find the money to fight an unnecessary and protracted war but not to care for the veterans who will be disabled in that war.

When Tom was in Vietnam I was in high school. The anti-war movement then was often pitted against the soldiers - draftees, many of them - who fought in that quagmire. Today must be a different kind of anti-war movement, one that supports and values the lives of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who are being asked to sacrifice their lives, their health, their youth on an unneeded and unwanted war. My brothers and sisters in the armed services I salute you, but with every ounce of breath in my body I will do whatever it takes to stop this war.