Letters to the Editor
Retired Military Patriot
Published Letters: 2270 Editor's Choice: 11
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Healthyskeptic
[Read the article: Japanese history lessons]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It’s obvious to me that you have not read Wolferen’s book that I referenced, “The Enigma of Japanese Power” or three others I would recommend, “Lost Japan” and “Dogs and Deamons,” by Alex Kerr and “Tokyo Underworld,” by Robert Whiting. I lived in Japan eight years, married a woman from Japan and spent a lot of time off base. I was buying the LDP nonsense just like you are until I read these four books. Now I see things differently, especially the LDP.
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ivanveen
[Read the article: Why Cory Booker is mad as hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don’t pay attention to bloggers like Thrasher and Kstone. They find there amusement in stirring things up, not solving problems. As I told you before, you understand the basic problem and that is the first step in solving a problem that when you meet it head-on everyday should seem overwhelming. It won’t be as overwhelming when there are people of your caliber working on it.
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We must take advantage of editorial drumbeat
[Read the article: The NYT's growing pro-war fan club]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks @sysprog, Jim White, casual_observer, for the heads up on a very significant NYT editorial on the need to pull out and stop all the political nonsense and thanks Mona for your Powell insight. Your comments are spot on. The conclusions reached at the end of the Times editorial sum up what the realists in the war and blogasphere have been saying for a long time:
“One of the trickiest tasks will be avoiding excessive meddling in Iraq by its neighbors — America’s friends as well as its adversaries.
Just as Iran should come under international pressure to allow Shiites in southern Iraq to develop their own independent future, Washington must help persuade Sunni powers like Syria not to intervene on behalf of Sunni Iraqis. Turkey must be kept from sending troops into Kurdish territories.
For this effort to have any remote chance, Mr. Bush must drop his resistance to talking with both Iran and Syria. Britain, France, Russia, China and other nations with influence have a responsibility to help. Civil war in Iraq is a threat to everyone, especially if it spills across Iraq’s borders.
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans’ demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened — the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war.
This country faces a choice. We can go on allowing Mr. Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or we can insist that American troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage — with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading.”
Even though some Times reporters have been lousy journalists, Times editorials count heavily with a lot of Americans and members of Congress. This could well mean that the Attention Deficit Administration of Spoiled Brats will be severely slowed in their surge drum beat and disgusting continuance of playing politics with the lives of the men and women who have and are doing, whether they wanted to or not, what their nation has asked of them.
We must keep doing all we can to increase the sound of our drumbeat to take advantage of what this cautious editorial staff has asked.
And Glenn, your hard work is clearly paying off.
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Denning
[Read the article: The NYT's growing pro-war fan club]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you and others are right about the Times growing weakness and complicity, doesn’t the fact that they came out with such a strong editorial make the editorial more significant? I agree with what casual_observer told you about the claimed weakness and ineffectiveness:
“And I do believe that the NYT remains a Great and Influential Newspaper, not just in the US, but globally. This must be the reason its articles are used so widely by bloggers and politicians everywhere, and why it is worth communicating with the NYT regarding its content.”
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Denning
[Read the article: The NYT's growing pro-war fan club]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I agree with everything you said. Both of us would like journalism to return to the quality of its former days when as an Air Force public affairs officer, I worked with many journalists who had integrity, worked very hard, and believed, as I did, that the truth was the most important commodity for both the military and the media. Unfortunately, we have mostly mediocrity and complicity to deal with today. That is the bed we have to lie in, but we can’t let a jaded view, and I recognize you are not among those with one, keep us from recognizing media reports that advance the cause of getting us out of Iraq. Trickles turn into beautiful, running streams, right Bebop-o?
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Jim White, What confuses you
[Read the article: GOP hawks' sudden conversion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Here’s some factors that might be at play:
1. Many voters are not yet ready or willing to focus on the election or detailed issues that would come into play to decide on a candidate.
2. Conservative voters do not want to accept blame for this tragic and unnecessary war and to say they are in favor of a Democrat would cause them to have to do so.
3. Conservative voters do not associate the Republican front running trio with responsibility for any of the Bush Attention Deficit Administration of Spoiled Brats’ decisions and behavior.
4. Voters have only a simplistic idea of the trio as labeled by the MSM and GOP mantra writers or the voters’ caricature idea of the trio’s character and primary value.
5. At this early election stage, party/conservative loyalty is all that is being considered.
6. Independent voters that supported the ADASBers in the past two election cycles, are upset with Jr. and the war, yet have not decided to favor any Democratic contenders as a way to express that displeasure.
7. Some voters are just stupid and unwilling to do much thinking.