Letters to the Editor

| Thursday, April 3, 2003 10:00 PM PST ∞

North County Times


At their core, all people are against war


To Sergie Balashov, thank you so much for your contributions ("Letter from a Russian friend," March 27). Please keep writing. To Bob Kahn, I may not agree with you often, but I consider your piece March 20 to be the best you've ever written ("Happy first day of spring"). If only there were enough insight the world over.


Last Friday I lay in bed watching the bombing of Bagdad. I don't care if you think this war is just or misguided, if those scenes didn't reach into the very essence of your soul, then you are out of touch with your humanity.


There are those of us who believe this war is ill-timed or misplaced.


There are those of us who believe we waited too long, some by as much as 12 years. We would be labeled anti-war and pro-war. Alas, media labels are but superfluous catchalls, as all but a few crazies are at their core, against war.


RICK PAUL


Escondido





Entertainers should stick to entertaining


The latest ill-conceived act to come out of the entertainment world is the Dixie Chicks, slamming our president while in Great Britain performing on their world tour. This is typical of many of those with big money, a popular name and in the limelight. Their egos and self-importance clouds out reality and we end up with make-believe, Tinsel Town's main product.


People in the limelight have an obligation to be prudent in public. Their personal opinions should not be aired to the world while performing. They should do their homework before spouting off. A little education will tell them that our country is where the majority rules. President Bush's ratings this week are up to 76 percent for going into Iraq and removing this madman.


People have only to look at what France's and Germany's motives are -- money. They have multi-billion dollar trade agreements with Iraq. They have been helping this madman become the threat to not only us, but the world. Greed makes strange bed partners.


The actors and entertainers should stick to what they know, do and get paid for -- acting for entertainment. The news media should find better sources for its output. Making money should be second to the truth.


TOM JENNINGS


Carlsbad





What is happening to the United States?


I am an opinionated military wife. When 9/11 happened, everyone was so devastated and upset about everything and they wanted Bush to do something about it right then and there. Things like that can't be done without thought and planning.


Finally, Bush does something and a majority of the citizens in this great country are totally against it. What is so bad about wanting to ensure that we survive?


I know that when my husband and I have children of our own, I want to be able to see them grow up and share the love that my husband and I have to offer them, without having to worry about a self-involved ruler like Saddam Hussein wanting to bomb us when we are not looking.


My husband and I have been married for 10 months now and I am very proud of him because now he is fighting not just for our freedom, but for the freedom for our unborn children, and he is glad to do it with no hesitations.


I recently read an article saying that we are "alienating people." I believe that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. But all this protesting and negativity about the war isn't helping anything. All it is doing is making the military men and women feel that they are fighting for people who don't care.


JUNE SILVA


Vista





One is symbolic protest, the other murder


Regarding the cartoon by Richard Kemplin in the March 22 North County Times that depicts a '60s peacenik symbolically burning a U.S. flag to protest the actions of his government, and a modern U.S. citizen burning the peacenik.


The cartoon is symbolic of patriots who have read the Constitution, federalist and anti-federalist papers, constitutional debates, Locke, Paine, etc., and know that this country was intended to be an example of laissez-faire personal and economic freedom for the world to emulate; versus what it has become as exemplified by a nation devoid of domestic or international historical perspective that is easily propagandized into unjustified bloodlust by a megalomaniac federal government and its obedient mass media. If you don't like the message, murder the messenger.


BILL HOLMES


Carlsbad





Learn and show respect for the flag


Last weekend I attended a competition that consisted of all teenagers.


Before awards were announced and presented, we were asked to stand for the national anthem. Immediately after this request, a teen boy sitting directly in front of me was chattering and then proceeded to salute with his hand upside down.


When the anthem was finished I reached down and put my hand on his shoulder, telling him that only those in uniform salute the flag. His response was to flippantly inform me that he was a civilian and this was his uniform, while doing a bit of a dance.


After the awards the middle-aged woman sitting with him approached me to say that even she didn't know that only uniformed people saluted the flag, which floored me to say the least. Then she proceeded to berate me for "embarrassing the kid" by pointing out his indiscretion. She felt that as an adult I should have stayed quiet.


I informed her this would not be the case, ever. She felt I owed him an apology. Words were exchanged regarding my behavior, ending with her telling me I was un-American, and my rather harsh reply, to which her reaction was to leave.


Let this be a warning to anyone who shows disrespect for my flag, my country or my military; you will be told to show due respect. Parents, teach your children.


CONNIE SWANSON


Escondido





Time to stop war is before picking up a rifle


We are at war and we should let the world know we oppose the behavior that led us here.


We ought to also look ahead to what is most likely to occur. Our president, and he is our president even though we did not elect him, shows a desire to take control of Iraq, its people, its wealth and its culture.


The United Nations, after the horrors off WW II, offered a welcome diplomatic alternative to war to the expansion ambitions of the likes of Germany, Italy and Japan. We cheered, little knowing that a future U.S. administration could go to war to show U.S. power and the need to dominate all nations.


I said we should stop a war before picking up the rifle. Now I say the time to plead for diplomacy is before establishing the economic, the political and misplaced, pride-based power structure that will surely lead us into the follies down this road.


RICHARD L. SOULSBY


Vista





Some truths about the Bush administration


The truth is that the real reasons we are now conducting military exploits in Iraq is that the key players, Condoleezza Rice, former executive at Chevron Oil, Dick Cheney, formerly of Halliburton, and the senior George Bush all are seeking to make trillions off the oil reserves in the Caspian Basin, the largest oil reserve in the world. The other, equally important, reason is to further their lust for a new world order in order to enslave the remainder of humanity in a gigantic fascist global dictatorship.


We are playing in a high stakes poker game, and the fate of the entire planet hangs in the balance. If these ruthless men and women of the Bush gang get their way in Iraq, they will continue their conquest until there is nothing left to conquer. Countries will fall like dominoes, until the entire world lines up in their camp.


Fortunately, people are waking up en masse, and Mr. Bush is doing an excellent job of waking them up. The peace demonstrations are getting larger each week, as millions of citizens all over the world come to realize that war is not the answer. Yes, we should show our support for our military men and women by helping to bring them home. Tying yellow ribbons is not accomplishing a thing except to show ignorance of what is really going on.


MARALYN JOHNSON


San Diego





Now is the time to be united as Americans


Get over it. We are at war and now is the time to get behind our country and our troops. This in-fighting has got to stop. There is nothing to gain within a family when there is fighting and bickering. We are tearing ourselves apart at the seams. It appears that there is no more compromise, no more willingness to support others, if in the beginning "my point of view" didn't win.


I, like many others, hoped and prayed that we would not go to war. No one wants to lose our young men on battle grounds. No one wants to see innocent children, men or women die, or be used as pawns in a deathly battle. It is now too late. We are there and it is time for all Americans to rise to the occasion and support our great country. We must unite and give productive suggestions to end this war, not just whine about being involved.


We are not fighting a war to gain new territory, but to free more of the world for the future of our children. Tyranny must be stopped; we can be instruments to put an end to it.


KATHY MARLER


Escondido





Do protesters support Saddam?


These protesters doing their die-in really amaze me. They say that they are doing this because innocent people are dying because of the war. Hello? Do they not realize that one of the reasons this war is happening is because Saddam Hussein has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people? Yes, every life is important. But 14 civilians have been killed compared to over 100,000 that Saddam Hussein has either killed or maimed.


Do they support this? Do they support living in fear and starvation? These protesters seem to have lost the reasons why we are there. The people of Iraq have been forced to live in fear of their president.


They do not have the freedom (as we do) to speak out. Do the protesters believe that living in fear of dying is a better life? If they do, then hey, I'll buy them the plane ticket.


As a very proud wife of a Marine, I have one last thing to say. To Martin Sheen, who called our troops "dogs of war"; get a clue. These men and women would give their life to let you live with the freedom you have today. Would he do the same? Next time, Mr. Sheen, use the saying correctly. It's "Devil Dog" and I'm proud to be married to one.


LORI CARSON


Camp Pendleton





United Nations is dangerously irrelevant


One thing the Iraq situation has made perfectly clear is that the United Nations is completely irrelevant.


If the U.N. were a hospital, all of its patients would die because the U.N. has demonstrated time and time again that it is unable to determine a course of treatment for a problem and then implement it. Tinkering with Iraq for 12 years and producing 17 (or more) unenforced resolutions is a tragic joke on the people of Iraq as well as the world as a whole.


Why should the United States place the safety of its country and the security of its people in the nonexistent decision-making capability of a group of Third-World, back-water countries whose inept and corrupt governments are unable to feed, clothe or educate their own people?


Obviously, the United States should not rely on the U.N. for any matter relating to it national safety or security.


Perhaps France, Germany or even Canada would relish the idea of being home to the U.N. I will gladly help them pack.


GERRY LOCK


Escondido





The beauty of liberal logic


In his March 18 attempt at logic, Ted Spiegel enshrines himself as the perfect example of liberal mind workings. He leads in with the usual name-calling, follows that with attributing to me things he only imagines I believe, and concludes by offering up the prototypical red herring while denying that it's even a fish.


If one proposes to formulate an opinion on abortion, one must first have a basic moral code. Everyone has one, but some get it from their own formulations for convenience, others from a higher source. This is where we lose Spiegel. Either life is sacred or it is of no particular value (one's own excluded, of course).


Spiegel's story about his mother's decision to abort his brother or sister did not mention whether her life was threatened or not. This did not stop him from using the red herring as justification for the 97 percent of abortions done for convenience.


That's the beauty of liberal logic: grab an unrepresentative example and use it to justify all manner of mischief and worse. I just don't understand how they can continue functioning when they can't even sleep at night.


HANS NEUMANN


Escondido





Bush following the thrust of Hitler's formula


Parallels between Hitler's "Mein Kampf " strategy for German lebensraum (living space) and the world influence plan for America advocated by Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld are manifold. President Bush's endorsement of their plan is frightening. Similarities between the implementation steps in the two plans are ominous.


Hitler's early steps were politicization of courts, ridicule of dissent, oppression of selected classes of individuals and retraction of their protections under law, imposition of travel restrictions, installation of state propaganda organs and intimidation of foreign nations.


Both leaders were appointed to office after failing to achieve majority vote. Judging by stark differences between foreign media reports and American media reports of our Iraq adventures, covert American propaganda organs are alive and well. A dedicated hour on the Internet can shock one's eyes wide open.


One should note the detention without charge or counsel of people of Middle Eastern roots. Note the so-called Patriot Act (more accurately, "Surrender of Freedoms Act"). Note threats and attacks upon nations with which Bush disagrees. Note intimidation of nations whose allegiances waver. Beware bait-and-switch politics. Beware presidential smirks. DICK WEST Encinitas








There is no excuse for complacency





The overwhelming majority of the world's sane people and their governments have responded to the Hussein regime's bribery, bullying and mass-murdering with a resounding "No!" The United States, the world's great nation devoted to preventing tyranny and oppression, will not be perverted to tolerate more. The majority of our leaders have refused to appease the Hussein regime's drive to extend his military might into the corners of the Middle Eastern world.


Will Saddam's regime pursue its treacherous tactics and make itself a rogue nation destroying the processes established by the Geneva Convention and other laws of warfare? Will Saddam shoot, blow into bloody bits and incinerate thousands of his own people to prove his might to the world?


Will the world stand idly by while the Hussein regime commits its atrocities? Will Americans stand idly by while their sons and daughters in uniform are murdered as POWs by a dictator drunk on unchecked power?


I pray morality and wisdom will prevail and President Bush will succeed in liberating Iraq's people from Saddam and in bringing Saddam out in chains. Despite his defeat in the Persian Gulf War, institution of no-fly zones, supposed destruction of most of his weapons stockpiles during the early 1990s and resumption of weapons inspections, Saddam is still a significant threat to his neighbors and to his own people. Iraq has not done everything that Bush has demanded. There is no excuse for complacency.


Nathanael Johnson Temecula








Kudos to reporter, photographer who are in Iraq





The articles and photographs in the March 30 paper by Darrin Mortenson and Hayne Palmour are Pulitzer prize material. Without pompoms or Kleenex they tell it like it is ---- real war, real people facing real pain and real death with real courage and real confusion.


I hope your readers can understand how important it is to have this kind of reporting in the face of sanitized network news that feeds us George Bush's self-righteous, pompous arrogance followed by Saddam Hussein's fantasies of glory interspersed one day with pompom waving cheerleading for fireworks in Baghdad followed the next day by querulous whimpering when the people we have attacked actually shoot back.


Your reporters make it clear. War is about bloody babies. War is about good and brave Marines incinerated in their tank. War is about new understanding and confusion about the meaning of having the power and permission to kill with the most powerful military force the world has ever seen.


Mortenson and Palmour will be in my prayers for a swift end to this war, making possible their safe return, the safe return of the men and women they are with, and the return of some semblance of peace for the people of Iraq.


Jim Woodward


Temecula








We need to accept the president





I repeatedly hear on the radio, see on the TV, and read in the printed media a persistently wussy whine from the liberal/left about President George W. Bush's being elected. They claim that he was appointed by the Supreme Court. Wrong. President Bush's election was affirmed by the Supreme Court.


If the liberal/left had brought forward an electable candidate, the outcome might have been different. The fact is that they put forward a loser.


The liberal/left is having fits because they are unable to bring forward anyone with presidential stature who can be elected. Their Democratic leadership includes major whiner Tom Daschle, the hero of Chappaquidick Ted Kennedy, bland Richard Gephardt, and super bland John Kerry, all being chased by an ambulance chaser.


People who show disrespect for the president earn the disrespect of others. For example: While I felt that Clinton was a gross jerk unfit for the office, I still showed respect for the office he held, and I appropriately called him "President" Clinton, regardless of my personal feelings. Michael Moore (what I really want to call him is unprintable) and other horse's patooties of the same questionable class or category of the human species should respect the office of the president regardless of their personal feelings. Obviously, Moore and his fellow bottom feeders have earned my disrespect.


Jim Horn


Temecula








Residents need to know how officials vote





As a regular feature in the paper, you show how our state legislators vote on various bills. I think (The Californian) would be doing the community of Murrieta a great public service by showing how our City Council members vote on the important items that come before them. The public is especially interested in high-density housing and the number of apartment buildings and condominiums that are being approved. The public would like to know how our traffic problems are being addressed, i.e., our poor roads that are deteriorating rapidly.


Madison Park condominiums are a good example of causing added water build up when it rains, making Ivy Street a river. It is much worse than it ever was. There are more and more apartment complexes being approved. This is causing traffic problems and overcrowding in our schools and these problems will only increase.


Olive Hill Ranch should not have been permitted to be built on the size lots that were approved. This was brought to the council's attention and much discussion and investigation ensued to try and stop it ---- to no avail.


Not everyone has cable service to enable them to tune in to the meetings. The public needs to be informed how their elected officials are voting. This is especially important with elections coming up.


Carol Carson


Murrieta





4/4/03

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