In “Epitaphs of the War,” Rudyard Kipling wrote: “If any question why we died; Tell them, because our fathers lied.” Days after Memorial Day, while Maine families still carry the grief of those losses, Sen. Susan Collins continues to evade responsibility for one of the gravest foreign policy failures in modern American history.

Collins voted to authorize the Iraq War based on what she called “compelling and irrefutable” evidence of weapons of mass destruction. We now know that evidence was false. As the rationale for the war collapsed and the death toll mounted, Collins responded with expressions of “concern” about its execution.

As a Marine Corps veteran, I cannot accept Collins’ attempts to avoid responsibility for that war. Graham Platner volunteered to serve his country. Like many Mainers, he endured the horrors of Ramadi as a Marine machine-gun section leader. We did not volunteer to be lied to.

By 2007, when the disaster was undeniable, Collins chose political safety over decisive action. She backed symbolic criticisms of the war while opposing stronger measures that could have helped bring troops home.

Too many American families buried loved ones because political leaders lacked the courage to admit they were wrong. Maine deserves better than hindsight without accountability.

Morgan Lueck
China