When applicable, highlight comments or actions taken by elected officials. It helps to give your letter a local slant, and if possible, articulate your experience. The seeming success of the last round of negotiation between the two key players in El Salvador is laudatory. Also to be praised are U.N. Secretary General Perez de Cuellar and his chief assistant in these negotiations, Alvaro de Soto, for the goodwill, understanding, patience and skill. Military aid supports the military, only one of the sides in the conflict there.
Military aid enables the military to wage war.
The facts are before us. Last year, military aid was significantly restricted for the first time in our historic relationship with El Salvador. In the last year, we have witnessed noteworthy progress toward peace and negotiated settlement for the first time in 11 years. Although a causal connection between these two facts cannot be proved, it would seem more logically compelling to conclude that restricted military aid and the threat of further restrictions sent a clear message about democracy, about negotiated settlement and about U.S. unwillingness to finance war in El Salvador. Military aid to only one side in a conflict sends, at best, a very mixed message about our desire for negotiated settlement and peace.