Letters to the Editor
Ron Smith
Published Letters: 211 Editor's Choice: 11
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George W. Bush is President and All Is Not Well
[Read the article: Panic on Wall Street]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How much does a barrel of oil cost? $75. or so
Who was the first SEC chairman that Bush appointed in August 2001 ? Harvey Pitt, one time Enron lawyer
What Secretary of the Treasury got fired by Bush because he complained about too much government debt? Paul O'Neill
What sitting Vice-President refused to part with his 444,000 Halliburton stock options?Dick Cheney
And by the way, Halliburton is the largest government contractor in Iraq.
Remember the line out of this corrupt Administration:"Reagan proved that the size of government debt doesn't matter. "
Is there a pattern here ?
Thank You, Mr. Leonard, for an excellent article.
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Hail to the "Magnificent Seven"
[Read the article: "We have failed on every promise"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you, Joan for highlighting this very important OP-ED by seven of our brave and articulate troops.
I sent this article to my brother and 100 local Democrats. Senators Webb and Warner and Congresswoman Davis will get it tomorrow.
Below are 5 of my questions that these men answer:
1. Can we win in Iraq?
"To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived
its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win
this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and non-
commissioned officers with the 82ND Airborne Division soon heading back
home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as
increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political
and social unrest we see every day."
2. Who are we fighting?
"What soldiers call the 'battle space' ... is crowded with actors who do not fit
neatly into boxes: Sunni extremists, Al Qaeda terrorists, Shiite militiamen,
criminals and armed tribes. This situation is made more complex by the
questionable loyalities and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army,
which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers' expense."
3. What is life like for the average Iraqi ?
"Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two
million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities
lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. 'Lucky' Iraqis live
in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls ... "
"When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are
likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages."
4. Is our presence in Iraq helpful to anyone?
"... while creating proxies is essential in winning a counterinsurgency, it requires
that the proxies are loyal to the center that we claim to support. Armed Sunni
tribes have indeed become effective surrogates, but the enduring question is
where their loyalties would lie in our absence. The Iraqi government finds itself
working at cross purposes with us on this issue because it is justifiably fearful
that Sunni militias will turn on it should the Americans leave."
"In short we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and question-
able allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear."
5. Will peace ever come to Iraq ?
"Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in the ways
that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality on the
battlefield is congruent with that in the political sphere. There will be no magna-
nimous solutions that please every party the way we expect, and there will be
winners and losers. The choice we have left is to decide which side we will take."
One last comment of my own:
This fiasco in Iraq has been brought to you by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and their enablers, predominantly Republicans.
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The Leading Republican Presidential Candidates Are Draft-Dodgers
[Read the article: Fred Thompson's revealing back story]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fred Thompson is one. That is, he is a macho draft-dodger. Rudy Giuliani is another macho draft-dodger. Mitt Romney is also a macho draft-dodger. Geez, where does it end?
They all admire Cheney and Rove, both macho draft-dodgers. Now George W. Bush did serve in the military during the Vietnam War. Oh yes, he didn't leave the continental United States. And George was AWOL for 9 months in 1972. But he is MACHO. Look at all that brush he cut.
So now we see that whenever you speak of the top Republicans, you must say MACHO Draft-Dodger in order to get it right.
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Obama is the Better Qualified
[Read the article: Barack Obama's Republican edge]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Barak Obama brings more to the table than Hillary Clinton. He is a talented person, Harvard Law Review Editor. For the HLR Editor position it matters not if either your spouse is famous or your dad went to the school.
It was Obama's choice to work in a Chicago slum following his Harvard graduation. Remember this, the folks who worked with him in Chicago liked him because he was effective.
So a guy born in Hawaii to an African exchange student father and a mother from Kansas is now a US Senator from Illinois. After experiencing the divorce of his parents when young, he learned a number of useful life lessons from his Indonesian step-father. Lessons learned like how to throw a punch if attacked. what to say to a beggar at your door who has no nose, how to kill a chicken and how tasty are grasshopper and snake.
So Mr. Obama may not have the experiences of a white woman in America who marries Bill Clinton and gets herself elected US Senator from New York. But Barak Obama is experienced and talented.
And he gets my vote.