Letters to the Editor
Retired Military Patriot
Published Letters: 2236 Editor's Choice: 11
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Wow! North Dakota
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love to see my home state get so much attention. Before we had TV, I had to use our public library to find out about the rest of the world. I would be the first to bad mouth Christian evangelicals and all the nonsense they spew to the world and support they give to the Imperials. And even though I am now an atheist, my values were well formed by my participation in a Lutheran church. Fortunately, the pastor and his son who became my best friend, at a vulnerable time in my home and peer life, helped me through this rough period and taught me teamwork, sharing, community love, and the dangers of hypocrisy. From all I have seen of organized religion, I was very lucky.
I would also be remiss, if I didn’t add that the farm culture of hard work, don’t quit and learn to stand on your own two feet, were also critical in who I am.
Garrison Keillor's Minnesota, is no different than the world I was raised in and although I would not want to live their now, I am grateful for what it was and is. I grew to love independence more than anything. For example, today we have two very fine Democratic senators in a very Republican state.
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William Timberman
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You have stated the “when is force justified” dilemma well. Ever since the slaughter in Rwanda, I’m sure Bill Clinton has deeply regretted that he didn’t use force to prevent such an awful tragedy. It no doubt is a sizable part of his motivation for the great work his foundation is doing in Africa now to halt the devastation of aids, malaria and lack of educational opportunities.
African and European nations, the U.S., China, the United Nations and the Iraq war have let politics interfere with stopping the tragedy in Darfur. The decision to send in 26,000 troops will not necessarily stop the violence, depending on how the politics work out. None of that makes any difference to those refugees and victims in Darfur. Maybe, if our motivation is saving humanity, then there is a much better chance that the politics will work out as they did in the Balkans.
There never will be any easy answer to the force dilemma. The best we may be able to do is to insist on leaders in and out of the military who are humble, compassionate humans, not calculating politicians. Several on this blog, like you, would be good candidates.
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bucky 1
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It is best to let others work out their problems."
That is not going to do anything for all the millions of Iraqi refugees that our nation is now morally responsible for. When problems can’t be worked out and innocent victims suffer, we can’t always sit idly by, regardless of whether or not it is due to ironic evil. That’s why many of us are so frustrated and do so much blogging. We saw the Iraq tragedy coming and could do nothing about it and now we have to watch irresponsible, manipulating politicians, in and out of the military, deny their role and blame everyone but themselves. Perhaps when children, if they had learned to be fully responsible for their decisions and the consequences, they might have learned humanity and foresight and made different pre-invasion decisions.
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@Bebop-o
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for your graciousness. I'm grateful I never had to face combat as you did. If I would have, I would like to think I would be like Red. Have a safe, bebopin, blueberry lovin time.
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captainlarab, Garry Owen
[Read the article: There was no "coverup"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for adding real expertise to this discussion. I worked in Air Force public affairs for 28 years and know nothing about weapons, but I do know how public affairs is handled at the general officer and SECDEF level having been with Central Command when it was formed. I don’t find it at all credible that when these top officers who are very aware of the ramifications of “bad” stories, would claim, “I don’t recall,” “there was an ongoing investigation, so I couldn’t get involved and had to leave it to the Army,” and “to my knowledge, there was no cover-up.” They knew the posthumous awards ceremony for Corporal Tillman for his courage under enemy fire was very important to counter the damaging Abu Ghraib and other Iraq/Afghanistan war coverage. To claim that it wasn’t discussed thoroughly within the Department of Defense and the White House well before fratricide was publicly known, is absolute nonsense.
For us and the American people to believe them, we have to believe they are idiots. They are a lot of things, but idiots they are not. We also can easily conclude, that once the media reported that it was a friendly fire incident, they started to plan their denial and shirking responsibility strategy. When they found out they would have to testify to congress under oath, they further coordinated their stories. It makes me sick to my stomach when under oath, Rumsfeld assures us that he would only tell the truth and expected everyone under him to do the same. The hypocrisy and lack of integrity has done great arm to the services we so cherish. The truth will keep coming out, but not as soon as many of us would like. The damage will take a long time to repair so that military leaders can once again be trusted. The vast majority still can be trusted and their honor and lives have been stained by those who have succumbed to these foul smelling civilian leaders.