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| We welcome your letters which we will be publishing on this page. To submit a letter, click here. Dear Reverend Jackson I visited your website but was unablel to find a feedback link. I resent the fact that your Rainbow Push website does not offer visitor feedback. This tells me you are more interested in telling the public what you think rather than listen to what your visitors have to say. I am saddened by your effort at the 11th hour to prolong the life and acrimony concerning the life of Terri Schiavo.
You are a person of feeling and compassion but consider the quality of life of this individual whose life has become a public tug-o-war. By all accounts, not that of the kooks and the politicians, but the experts, Ms. Schiavo is never going to recover and she is never going to be anything else than a series of motor reflexes. This is not the opinion of one person who has viewed a video tape and made a medical decision totally outside his area of expertise, but specialists who have studied Ms. Schiavo and come to the conclusion that she is and shall remain in a persistent vegetative state. You side with her parents. But what about her husband, who has devoted the last ten years of his life to trying to carry out the wishes of his former wife. Who knows a woman better than her husband? What about his feelings? He is not coming on at the 11th hour as are so many of the politically motivated. He has been in this thing from the start. Does this not count for something? And what about the egregious overstepping of their bounds by the President and the Congress? As a Liberal, I do not have to tell you how frightening and dangerous this action is. If Congress and the President can legislate the fate of one person, what does this mean for those of us who do not agree with the President and his policies. By stepping in at the 11th hour as you have done, you are condoning this abuse of Presidential and Congressional power. If you believe as these people supposedly do, that every life is sacred, then why not put your effort behind bringing rights to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the world who have no one to look after their rights? This is by far a more overriding issue. These people are living human beings and according to most reports, 80-90 percent are not guilty of any crime except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And yet the President has seen fit to imprison these people without charges and without access to the justice system. This is morally wrong and inhumanitarian. But where is your outrage here? Why are you not fighting for justice for these people? The court system has heard the arguments for Ms. Schiavo and in every case has ruled in favor of her husband, Michael. Why can't you abide by the decision of the courts? They have heard all the evidence and rendered their decisions based on the facts, not politics or emotions. If you read this, which I sincerely doubt you will, thank you for your time. Gary W. Priester Dear Mr. Hopkins, As the former mayor of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, an architect and an urban designer, I read with interest your essay in The Sandoval Signpost and followed the link to your website. I have watched Placitas grow over the past 20+ years, and now follow the debates about the future of your aquifer. Your description of the challenges sounds quite realistic. Many people are debating this question of how to create (or re-create) community across the country. I believe that the "New Urbanists" offer the best place-making strategies that I have seen to date. I recommend to you the Congress for the New Urbanism website, www.cnu.org and the writings of James Howard Kunstler, www.kunstler.com as just one pair of references on the web. I wish you the best in your efforts to help Placitas become a community. John Hooker
[An open letter to the President from Bette Midler] Dear President Bush, Today you called upon Congress to move quickly to amend the US Constitution, and set in Federal stone a legal definition of marriage. I would like to know why. In your speech, you stated that this Amendment would serve to protect marriage in America, which I must confess confuses me. Like you, I believe in the importance of marriage and I feel that we as a society take the institution far too lightly. In my circle of family, friends and acquaintances, the vast majority have married and divorced - some more than once. Still, I believe in marriage. I believe that there is something fundamental about finding another person on this planet with whom you want to build a life and family, and make a positive contribution to society. I believe that we need more positive role models for successful marriage in this country - something to counteract the images we get bombarded with in popular culture. When we are assaulted with images of celebrities of varying genres, be it actors, sports figures, socialites, or even politicians who shrug marriage on and off like the latest fashion, it is vitally important to the face of our nation, for our children and our future, that we have a balance of commitment and fidelity with which to stave off the negativity. I search for these examples to show my own daughter, so that she can see that marriage is more than a disposable whim, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. As a father, I'm sure you have faced these same concerns and difficulties in raising your own daughters. Therefore I can also imagine that you must understand how thrilled I have been over the past few weeks to come home and turn on the news with my family. To finally have concrete examples of true commitment, honest love, and steadfast fidelity was such a relief and a joy. Instead of speaking in the hypothetical, I was finally able to point to these men and women, standing together for hours in the pouring rain, and tell my child that this is what its all about. Forget Britney. Forget Kobe. Forget Strom. Forget about all the people that we know who have taken so frivolously the pure and simple beauty of love and tarnished it so consistently. Look instead at the joy in the beautiful faces of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon - 51 years together! I mean, honestly Mr. President - how many couples do you know who are together for 51 years? I'm sure you agree that this love story provides a wonderful opportunity to teach our children about the true meaning and value of marriage. On the steps of San Francisco City Hall, rose petals and champagne, suits and veils, horns honking and elation in the streets; a celebration of love the likes of which this society has never seen. This morning, however, my joy turned to sadness, my relief transformed into outrage, and my peace became anger. This morning, I watched you stand before this nation and belittle these women, the thousands who stood with them, and the countless millions who wish to follow them. How could you do that, Mr. President? How could you take something so beautiful - a clear and defining example of the true nature of commitment - and declare it to be anything less? What is it that validates your marriage which somehow doesn't apply to Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon? By what power, what authority are you so divinely imbued that you can stand before me and this nation and hold their love to a higher standard? Don't speak to me about homosexuality, Mr. President. Don't tell me that the difference lies in the bedroom. I would never presume to ask you or your wife how it is you choose to physically express your love for one another, and I defy you to stand before Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon and ask them to do the same. It is none of my business, as it is none of yours, and it has nothing to do with the "sanctity of marriage". I'm sure you would agree that marriage is far more than sexual expression, and its high time we all started focusing on all the other aspects of a relationship which hold it together over the course of a lifetime. Therefore, with the mechanics of sex set aside, I ask you again - what makes a marriage? I firmly believe that whatever definition you derive, there are thousands upon thousands of shining examples for you to embrace. You want to protect marriage. I admire and support that, Mr. President. Together, as a nation, let us find and celebrate examples of what a marriage should be. Together, let us take couples who embody the principles of commitment, fidelity, sacrifice and love, and hold them up before our children as role models for their own futures. Together, let us reinforce the concept that love is about far more than sex, despite what popular culture would like them to believe. Please, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our society, for the sake of our future, do not take us down this road. Under the guise of protection, do not support divisiveness. Under the guise of unity, do not endorse discrimination. Under the guise of sanctity, do not devalue commitment. Under the guise of democracy, do not encourage this amendment. —Bette Midler
To the Editor: Thank you for saying some of the many things that need to be said about G.W. Bush's socially destructive political agenda. I am a 63 year old African-American with vivid memories of growing up in a violent, racially segregated society. The thought that during the 21st century, a person serving as President of The United States would deliberately fan the flames of bigotry [with his gay marriage proposal], is repugnant beyond my ability to fathom. Shame on him and his supporters. —Floyd Cotton [An Open Letter from Michael Moore to George "I'm a War President!" Bush Dear Mr. Bush, Thank you for providing the illegible Xeroxed partial payroll sheets (or whatever they were) yesterday covering a few of your days in the National Guard. Now we know that, not only didn't you complete your tour of duty, you were actually paid for work you never did. Did you cash those checks? Wouldn't that be, um, illegal? Watching the press aggressively demand the truth from your press secretary -- and refusing to accept the deceit, the dodging, and the cover-up -- was a sight to behold, something we really haven't seen since you took office (to watch or listen to the entire press conference, or to read the full transcript, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040210-3.htmlgo here). More than one reporter pointed out that those pieces of paper your press secretary waved at them yesterday mean nothing. Even if they aren't forged documents, getting paid does not necessarily mean you showed up to do your duties. As retired Army Col. Dan Smith, a 26-year veteran, told the AP: "Pay records don't mean anything except that you're in or you're out," said Smith. "It doesn't necessarily reflect what duty you've actually performed because pay records simply record your unit of assignment and then all of your pay and benefits per pay period." Mr. Bush, this issue is not going to go away -- and I think yesterday's actions just dug you into a deeper hole. You're probably wondering why the heck this story won't just die. You probably thought that after I brought it up last month and then got slammed by Peter Jennings for uttering the "d" word, the whole matter would just disappear as fast as bag of blow being thrown out the window of a speeding car on a deserted Maine highway. But your "desertion" didn't go away -- and here's the reason why. You have sent countless numbers of our sons and daughters in the National Guard to their deaths in the last 11 months. You did this while misleading their parents and the nation with bogus lies about weapons of mass destruction and scary phony Saddam ties to al Qaeda. You sent them off to a never-ending war so that your benefactors at Halliburton and the oil companies could line their pockets. And then you had the audacity to prance around in a soldier's uniform on an aircraft carrier proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" -- while the cameras from your re-election campaign ad agency rolled. THAT is what makes this whole business of you being AWOL so despicable, and makes the grief-stricken relatives want to turn away from you in disgust. The reason your skipping-out on your enlistment didn't matter in the 2000 election was because we were not at war. Being stuck in a deadly, daily quagmire now in 2004 makes your military history-fiction and your fly-boy costume VERY relevant. You still have not answered the questions surrounding your National Guard "service." Let me repeat them as simply as I can for you (all of them based on the investigative work of the Associated Press and the Boston Globe):
Look, I'm sorry to have put you through all this. I was just goofing around when I made that comment about wanting to see a debate between the general and the deserter. I had no idea that it would lead to this. And there you were, having to suffer through Tim Russert on Sunday, saying weird things like "I'm a war president!" I guess you believe that, or you want us to believe that. Americans have never voted out a Commander-in-Chief during a war. I guess that's what you're hoping for. You need the war. But we don't. And our troops in the National Guard don't either. I know you see the writing on the wall, so why not come clean now? We are a forgiving people, and though you will not be returned to White House, you will find us grateful for a little bit of truth. Answer our questions, apologize to the nation, and bring our kids home. Yours, mmflint@aol.com
To the Editors: I've been thinking about the "Community" piece. I'm new to Placitas. But I see more a community of communities. I agree with much of what you say, but I see the Post Office as the most representative of Community. As far as I've seen in my six months here, the zip code is THE unifying factor in Placitas. The Placitas Mini-mart and gas station —with its tamale trailer and sometime flea market would come next, partly because of its proximity to the PO, partly because it meets a need shared by people living beyond the 6 point-something mile marker unconnected to homeowner associations, ethnicity, education, income, religious beliefs, etc. It sort of blends the centuries in its small way. I can see the Signpost as a potentially unifying factor--especially if it had a physical office, narrowed its focus to Placitas news and events and were more inclusive of all the communities within the Community, even the fodder of most small town newspapers--weddings and obits and minor goings-on, the things that let people "know" their neighbors a little even if they haven't met. But I don't think that's its objective. From one perspective Placitas could be viewed as a "melting pot" success story. Still, given its geographical location and history, the domination of English (except in the naming of subdivisions and streets) could also be seen as colonialism on top of colonialism. It seems like a "greater Placitas Community" is defined by the newer-comers, with their homeowners' associations and greater means, rather than as an extension or outgrowth of the original... ("lesser" as opposed to "greater"?)... community and its traditions. A tennis court near the village reminds me of Dodger Stadium built smack on top of Chávez Ravine in LA. Good point about the children. And the hermits. Excellent point about the unifying effect of crises. A library could be a unifying resource--depending on its vision. (The county I moved FROM in NC basically converted its library system into the lending equivalent of a supermarket book section --lowest common denominator/mass market, purchasing multiple copies of, say, new Danielle Steele books; keeping books on the shelves based on how frequently they were checked out; becoming a non-resource in terms of research, literature, history.....) The book sales it held to generate money were absolute treasure troves for the first couple of years. Churches are traditional community centers, yet from what I've read, the two denominations in Placitas historically have been unintentional community dividers as well. An fm station? To whose tastes and interests would it direct itself? An H&R Block-type tax office would be more unifying that an Edward Jones (?) office. A health clinic would be good. A local history museum? A hardware store... now THAT would create some Community! In any case, these are some of my random thoughts generated by your article. Being one of "the new guys in town" doesn't give me the best overview--I have lots of recent history to learn--but I really can't see an inevitable "Community." The various "community centers" are too far apart. The interests of residents and builders don't necessarily coincide. I'm stopping now –Sincerely, Susana Vincent To the Editor On the breast. Yes, we are both prudes and voyeurs. Yes, we are a nation that goes to church more than folks in other nations and the nation that made pornography an incredibly profitable business. Yes, some of the outrage is ridiculous —or the aim of the outrage is ridiculous at least. But I am not sure that you criticism is exactly on point. Adult content is not such a bad thing in the proper place, but this was not the place. The Super Bowl is a the ultimate mass market event. It should be, well . . . if not exactly wholesome, acceptable for the largest and likely the most diverse audience of the year. I found all of the performances in the half time show terrible (I know I am becoming an old fart) but that is not the same as what happened with Ms. Jackson. it was, to use another old fart term, inappropriate. Why should people have to worry about watching the super bowl half time show with their kids? I feel like the ads that accompany sports on tv, especially football, have become so raunchy that I have to go upstairs by myself to watch a game. The ads just aren't appropriate for a 5 and 11 year old. Given what I see on ads, I am not surprised that janet jackson, mtv and cbs thought her act was ok, but I am glad that lots of folks said it wasn't. As for the vomit inducing, flag waving pregame ceremony with the astronauts and the almost reflexive, at this point, salute to "men and women overseas": where is the outrage here. The shuttle disaster was horrific, I hope everyone of our service people come home physically and mentally whole. But what the hell does the NFL have to do with either of these things? Why do we allow the NFL and so many other product selling entities wrap themselves in the flag and convince us that this is a good thing? So I would say there are things to be outraged about from last weeks Super Bowl. Bill Wilkerson
Two dozen articles in two days dealing with the atrocities of the Iraqi occupation. Yet Bush, Dean, Clark, Kerry and Edwards insist that we remain in Iraq. The killing, of course, will continue as long as US soldiers are present under US command. It does not matter whether the president is Republican or Democrat; the atrocities will continue. This is the lesson of Vietnam. What is most baffling to me is that people who support Dean and Clark insist that they are against the Iraq war. The well intended Democrats who are not supporting Dennis Kucinich suggest he is not electable. This is even more baffling to me since I am a marketing consultant. I know that the American people resist change. I also know that when they do make a change, they do so only when they recognize that there is a “product” that is it significantly different than the “product” they are currently using and that the new “product” promises a substantial improvement (in marketing we call it "delivering superior value") over their existing “product”. Most of the people reading this letter, myself included, recognize that any of the Democratic candidates, with the possible exception of Lieberman, would be improvement over Dictator G. W. Bush. But we represent only a tiny minority of the American people. In fact, most Americans have only become cognizant of the Democratic primaries in last few weeks. Most Americans want a change. Most Americans no longer approve of Dictator G. W. Bush, but most Americans will continue to vote for him unless they are persuaded that a Democratic candidate offers a significant and a substantial difference. Put yourself in the position of the "average American" for a moment. We have Democratic candidates Dean, Kerry, Clark, and Edwards all saying the same thing as G. W. Bush. They all promise to keep our troops in Iraq for years, they all promise improvements in health care. They all promise more jobs. They all promise to keep us in NAFTA and the WTO. Now put yourself in the position of Karl Rove. You know that Americans are resistant to change and you can show that the Democratic "occupation candidates" are all offering the same thing as G. W. Bush. You can even demonstrate how all of them bought into the concept of "preemptive war" and all of them bought into the lies about weapons of mass destruction and even helped spread the lie (when even a twelve-year-old with a modem knew there were no wmd). Furthermore, given that Karl Rove has no regard at all for the truth, is as skillful as Joseph Goebbels in persuading people to believe "the big lie" and has more money than God (we believe that the Republicans may have as much as $400 million to spend on the general election) he will be able to persuade the American people that these candidates were all in support of Dictator Bush. Now go back to the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire and remember that the "antiwar candidate" Howard Dean despite spending $30 million was not able to defeat John Kerry. Dean has not been able to show himself to be significantly different than the typical establishment candidate John Kerry and even finished behind John Edwards in Iowa. In marketing as in politics, perception is everything. If the American people don't perceive Dean or Clark to be any different than Kerry, or Edwards, I can guarantee that the American people will perceive no difference between G. W. Bush and Kerry or Edwards. What is even worse is the possibility that they do see difference between Dean and Clark on the one hand and Kerry and Edwards on the other. Is there any Democratic candidate who has in fact stood up to Dictator G. W. Bush? Yes, Dennis J. Kucinich and only Dennis J. Kucinich has a history of standing up to Dictator Bush! Is there any candidate who has a health-care plan that is significantly different than all the other candidates? Yes, Dennis J. Kucinich and only Dennis J. Kucinich has such a plan to provide single-payer universal health-care for every American citizen! Is there any Democratic candidate who will take us out of NAFTA and thereby be able to increase employment opportunities for American citizens? Yes, Dennis J. Kucinich and only Dennis J. Kucinich plans to do precisely that! Is there any Democratic candidate who advocates free college tuition for every American child? Yes, Dennis J. Kucinich and only Dennis J. Kucinich has such a plan! Is there any Democratic candidate which is significantly different from G. W. Bush? Yes, Dennis J. Kucinich and only Dennis J. Kucinich can be shown to be significantly different from G. W. Bush! The American people will change only when they perceive a significantly different alternative that will provide them superior value over their current situation. Only Dennis J. Kucinich presents such a significantly different alternative. Dennis J. Kucinich is what we call in marketing the "sustainable competitive advantage" of the Democratic Party. Think it over. —John A. Murphy Subject: Iraq Accomplishments (The editors of RoughRoadReview received the following document recently from a supporter of the war in Iraq. Our answer follows) From the Commanding Officer at MWSS-171 to his Marines Marines and Sailors, As we approach the end of the year I think it is important to share a few thoughts about what you've accomplished directly, in some cases, and indirectly in many others. I am speaking about what the Bush Administration and each of you has contributed by wearing the uniform, because the fact that you wear the uniform contributes 100% to the capability of the nation to send a few onto the field to execute national policy. As you read about these achievements you are a part of I would call your attention to two things: 1. This is good news that hasn't been fit to print or report on TV. 2. It is much easier to point out the errors a man makes when he makes the tough decisions, rarely is the positive as aggressively pursued. Iraq under US lead control has come further in six months than Germany did in seven years or Japan did in nine years following WWII. Military deaths from fanatic Nazi's, and Japanese numbered in the thousands and continued for over three years after WWII victory was declared. Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... ... the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty. ... over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens. ... nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning. ... the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent. ... on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding the prewar average. ... all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools. ... by October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than scheduled. ... teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries. ... all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open. ... doctors salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam. ... pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons. ... the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccinations to Iraq's children. ... a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals which now irrigate tens of thousands of farms. This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women. ... we have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable water production. ... there are 4,900 full-service telephone connections. We expect 50,000 by year-end. ... the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns. ... 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily. ... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses. ... the central bank is fully independent. ... Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking laws. ... Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years. ... satellite TV dishes are legal. ... foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for "minders" and other government spies. ... there is no Ministry of Information. ... there are more than 170 newspapers. ... you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner. ... foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free to come and go. ... a nation that had not one single element - legislative, judicial or executive - of a representative government, now does. ... in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils. Baghdad's first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city council elected its new chairman. ... today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional organizations are electing their leaders all over the country. ... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government. ... the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events. Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30 Iraqi embassies around the world. ... Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't. ... for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam. ... the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq. ... Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to the zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders toforce cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games, or murdering critics. ... children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the government. ... political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam. ... millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror. ... Saudis will hold municipal elections. ... Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents. ... Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms. ... the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian — A Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy and for peace. ... Saddam is gone. ... Iraq is free. ... President Bush has not faltered or failed. ... Yet, little or none of this information has been published by the Press corps that prides itself on bringing you all the news that's important. It took the US over four months to clear away the twin tower debris, let alone attempt to build something else in its place. Now, take into account that Congress fought President Bush on every aspect of his handling of this country's war and the post-war reconstruction; and that they continue to claim on a daily basis on national TV that this conflict has been a failure. Taking everything into consideration, even the unfortunate loss of our brothers and sisters in this conflict, do you think anyone else in the world could have accomplished as much as the United Statesand the Bush administration in so short a period of time? These are things worth writing about. Get the word out. Write to someone you think may be able to influence our Congress or the press to tell the story. Above all, be proud that you are a part of this historical precedent. God Bless you all. Have a great Holiday. Semper Fidelis
So What? There is no doubt that the U.S. has dedicated a lot of money and energy to rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure, the same infrastructure our military took such pains to destroy. It's hardly surprising that this should have resulted in some successes. Some of the details in this account may be technically accurate; I do know that some are not true. And there is not a single item in this list that I had not read about previously in the American press. For example, Iraqi universities were devastated by our bombing and by the vandalism that followed the formal ending of the war—books destroyed, buildings razed, laboratories wrecked, etc. They may be "open" but it would be very surprising if they're functioning well. We may have rebuilt fifteen hundred school buildings, but the fact is that fewer than 25 per cent of Iraqi schoolchildren are attending the schools that have been repaired with our money and by our contractors. And even though 100,000 Iraqis may be employed in renovating the irrigation canals there, the unemployment rate in the country at large is 70 per cent! Statistics such as these do not put people to work, do not bring back the dead, and do not bring security to the people. The most preposterous statement in this memorandum is the one about Germany and Japan. First, except for cleanup operations in the islands of the Pacific, in which I participated as a Marine, and in which only a handful of our troops were hurt or killed by Japanese troops who didn't know the war was over, there was very little resistance to our occupation of either Japan or Germany. To say that "thousands" were killed after hostilities ended is absurd. After four years of total war in Japan's case, and almost seven in Germany's, there was, according to all serious accounts, bone-weariness with war and an enormous job of reconstruction ahead. We had obliterated several key German cities with saturation bombing--as well as Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo in Japan—and the people were stunned, starving, and disoriented. It was in our interest to assist in the reconstruction of the economies of Germany and Japan, both of whom were our major trading partners. We had entered the Second World War only after we were attacked. The “preemptive war” in Iraq was completely self-determined, undertaken for reasons that remain murky, a gratuitous use of overwhelming power. It's interesting, too, that the officer has nothing to say about Iraq's crippled oil industry, which is in worse shape than before the war, which is undergoing continuous attacks, and which has proved almost impossible to police. Nor does he mention the phantom “Weapons of Mass Destruction” whose presumed presence in Iraq was one of the stated reasons for the war. To argue, as the unnamed officer does, that the people of Iraq are free, in any meaningful sense of that much-abused word, or that any of the governmental units of the country are autonomous, is to ignore the reality of U.S. occupation and its tight controls over all governmental entities, and, most important, the continuous violence that characterizes Iraqi life. There is no freedom when occupying troops are free to break down any door, and arrest any person, in search of those who are trying to drive them out of their country. I can understand a unit commanding officer trying to convince his troops that what they've been doing and the risks they've been taking have been worth it and that things are looking up. In some small ways perhaps they are. Time has passed; billions of dollars have been spent. Bechtel and Brown and Root and Halliburton have their massive contracts, and doubtless more will come. But Iraqis and Americans are dying almost ever day. The commanding officer’s statistics are not so much false as beside the point. Those who have had no experience of war have no idea what it means, of how incredibly stupid and wasteful of life and resources it truly is. Remember that all of this reconstruction occurred because the United States and Britain destroyed the institutions and life support systems of Iraq in the first place. The dead from this war were real people, with families and children and friends. What should not be forgotten is the horrific price the Iraqi people have paid for the events that preceded this reconstruction , which would not have been necessary if we had not set out to destroy the country's infrastructure, which we had very little trouble accomplishing, given our power and Iraq's weakness. The best estimate now available is that upwards of ten thousand Iraqi non-combatants were killed prior to May 1st, and the toll increases every day. Moreover, several hundred of our own troops are dead and twenty five hundred or so grievously wounded ;and new casualties occur every day. Certainly the capture of Saddam Hussein was a good thing. Whether any of the dead or wounded would have chosen to give their lives or limbs for regime change is highly doubtful. And the 160 billion dollars we have spent on this war could have been used to repair the damage to our social and physical infrastructure that has resulted from the war on the poor and on the idea of government itself that has occurred in this country in recent years. No amount of rationalization can turn this into a necessary or just war. Meanwhile, good luck to the commander and his troops. They will need it. Semper fi from an old Marine. —RH
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little tired of the conservatives and their constant mantra that Democrats are the “tax and spend” party. To any conservative readers out there, I pose this question: What is the difference between Tax and Spend and Borrow and Spend? I ask this because all the while the conservatives are chanting Tax and Spend, they have been running up the largest national debt in the history of the nation—in the neighborhood of $500 BILLION. Most of this debt was brought about by the Bush Tax Cuts which have benefited persons earning over $350,000.00 per year. Even if the economy recovers some of what it had in the Clinton era, the children of our children will be paying for the excesses of the current Borrow and Spend administration for generations to come. They may never pay it back. For those of you who do not see the difference, think of it this way, Tax and Spend = pay as you go, kind of like paying off your credit card balance each month. Borrow and Spend = buy now, pay later, kid of like running up to your limit on one credit card and then running up the limit on a new card and a new card and a new card. —Had it with Republican BS!
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