Nazis were threat to everyone

I see that the eminent armchair historian Chris Pulse has breezily asserted that we were never in danger from the Nazis (Letters, June 18).

In his fantasy world, he seems to believe that if we had made no attempt to stop Hitler, the dictator would eventually have come to his senses, proclaimed himself satisfied with what he had, and left the rest of the world alone. Just as Mr. Neville Chamberlain thought.

Richard Boonstra

Escondido

The face of racism is ugly

The face of racism is ugly, which brings me to Ann Coulter. Ann is a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a conservative group whose members were formerly white supremacists. …

Mr. Glenn Beck and Mr. Bill O'Reilly constantly race-bait. A dangerous group.

I have observed the letters about the bad Democrats and Republicans. I saw a couple about Ted Kennedy. But then I got out my scales of justice. Mary Jo Kopechne was on one side and on the other side, all the men and women who have been killed in the fake war. Golly guys, your facts have to at least make sense or someone like moi comes in and shoots them out of the water.

For your information, you might want to take a break while Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford bury themselves. They ran on the "sanctity of marriage" platform. Enough said.

Peggy Sloan

Escondido

Israelis utilizing tactics of delay

A comprehensive agreement towards peace in the Middle East presents three possible approaches for Israel. The first is a two-state approach, which Israel does not like. The second is a one-state approach, which Israel will not countenance. The third is to use delaying tactics, an approach that Israel has successfully employed since its inception.

A recent such tactic is expansion of its West Bank settlements to accommodate for "natural growth." Otherwise, they argue, they would be asking settlers not to have babies. And how can anyone be against babies?

Before the Israelis can justify this case for "natural growth," they should observe that the population density of Gazans living for the past 42 years under their occupation is 4,118 per square kilometer, as compared with 673 persons per square kilometer in a typical Israeli West Bank settlement.

Arguments over the rationale of "natural growth" ignore the fact that it is really "illegal growth," since it is on Palestinian land. Simply stated, these are purely tactics to delay the possibility for a just peace in the Middle East. And Israel knows full well that justice delayed is justice denied.

Sorab Ghandhi

Escondido

Responses to letter writers

Re: Mel Crawford's April 27 letter: My letter (April 13) stating he blamed the current crisis on aid to Israel was accurate. He singled out aid to Israel as the only cause of America's problems. How about corrupt politicians? How about U.S. aid to the other 206 countries? No, just aid to Israel is what he's having problems with. My so-called "phony facts" were taken from a reliable Web site named in my letter and obviously ignored.

Israel's economy improved partly due to expansion of its high-tech sector. Israel is now a fully industrialized nation. Israel and the U.S. agreed to gradually phase out economic aid. Since 2008, Israel no longer receives bilateral economic support grants.

Re: Chris Pulse's April 17 letter: Chris said, "The Bible is fiction,#" yet calls the U.S the "Great Satan." Satan is part of the Bible, Chris.

Re: William Dreu's letter of June 13: He accuses pro-Israel writers of personal attacks against anti-Israel writers. Evidently, he hasn't read the slurs and insults directed at me. Dreu asks how Israel benefits America. For starters: Israel's an irreplaceable source for intelligence. The late Air Force Gen. George Keegan said "Israel is worth five CIAs."

Dolores Wiener

Oceanside

Officer White's actions saved lives

In response to the June 25 letter, "White verdict sets a bad precedent," the writer certainly has a right to his opinion. Those of us who have followed this event have had over a year to analyze the action Officer White took, based on a chaotic encounter with an out-of-control motorist that lasted about five minutes. Evidence in this case also detailed that the officer could not see the occupants in Rachel Silva's vehicle due to its tinted windows.

To be brief, White's action ended the event before anyone else, besides Silva and her son, was harmed. I wonder how the author of that letter, Rick Patterson, would feel about the officer if he had not taken this action, and Silva had run over him or members of his family while in the Lowe's parking lot.

Furthermore, I doubt that a 15-year veteran of the San Diego Police Department, who has the duty to train officers in the police academy, would compromise himself when testifying in court that White reacted appropriately in this particular confrontation.

Orv Hale

Escondido

An experience with 'socialized medicine'

With attacks against the public option, some would argue "socialized medicine," increasing, I offer the following experience. While traveling in England, a piece of grit flew into my eye. My eye teared continuously and I was in a great deal of discomfort. At the nearest hospital, we were directed to the specialized eye care clinic, where a doctor examined my eye without a wait.

Assuring me the foreign matter which cause a scratched lens was removed, he applied salve and a patch and sent me to the chemist (pharmacy) with a prescription. When I informed the desk that I was a United States citizen and offered to pay for the visit, I was told there was no charge for health care in the United Kingdom. Filling the prescription cost approximately one euro. All I have to say is, if this is socialized medicine, bring it on.

Noralee Sherwood

Oceanside

Proven strategy ignored

America's proven war strategy has been replaced with a strategy that endangers America's survival. The proven strategy was simple: Keep United States forces in America, wait until conflict began (other nations bear the initial brunt of war), make a timely entrance committing U.S. forces and resources. This strategy provided maximum protection and security for America in two world wars. No longer.

Since World War II, U.S. forces are placed worldwide. America is the spearhead of battle, suffering the killing of our troops and draining our resources. America lost its moral leadership, losing the world's confidence as a peacemaker. America acquired a bad name, i.e., imperialists.

Strategic change began as early as Kennedy. Given Madam Albright's mind-set â€"â€" why have a large powerful Armed Force if you don't use them â€"â€" it's become flagrantly obvious under Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld and their cabal of draft-dodgers. Flawed thinking and war-making misadventures found ways to position America in a no-win war with 1.3 million Muslims.

Diplomacy has given way to force. This weakness does not protect, but endangers Americans. It's a step backward toward militarism. America is duplicating actions of dictators while hypocritically claiming to be the beacon of democracy. The world knows better, even if Americans don't.

William Dreu

Vista

We're already in a socialist country

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq gave an estimate of more than 1 million civilian deaths due to the war in Iraq earlier this year. Mr. Schueler (Letters, June 18) is already living in a socialist country, complete with Social Security, Medicare, Medi-Cal, disability payments, unemployment benefits, food stamps, graduated income tax and multiple other social services from various levels of government. The new religion of "free-market capitalism" has brought about the current financial nightmare.

As for Mr. Chris Pulse (Letters, June 18), Nazi Germany declared war on us and sank many commercial ships along the East Coast, not to mention convoys to and from England.

And Ms. Phoenix Mackenzie (Letters, June 18): A university has an obligation to educate, not just train technicians. If knowing your country's history is only useful as an amusement, then we have no future in this "rapidly transitioning world." An abysmal ignorance of history, science, economics, politics and other areas of general knowledge is rampant in this country. Even worse is that, like her, the ignorant tenaciously insist on being ignorant.

Max Savin

Escondido

Insult to use tax money to prevent loss

… The Feds allowed teachers, policemen, firemen and other city and state employees a choice to opt out of Social Security and have their own retirement plan many years ago.

CalPERS became a gigantic investment fund with money paid in by cities and whatnot, to give employees fantastic benefits compared with Social Security recipients. Many receive more than $100,000 a year after 25 years' employment.

The reason these employees received such generous benefits was that the money paid in was only used to fund their own benefits. This is quite a bit different from the 90 percent of Americans whose money is used to fund retiring Americans and more. In fact, the parents of these employees who pay into funds like I've mentioned are taken care of by the Social Security recipients not entitled to these generous benefits.

The city of San Diego retirement funds lost more than $100 million recently because of risky investments. CalPERS lost billions.

It's only a matter of time before members of these non-Social Security-funded groups start demanding money from their cities to prevent any loss of benefits. It would be an insult to use my taxes for such purposes.

Let them sleep in their own bed!

Joe Martin

Oceanside

Landfill is big mistake

Big, big, big mistake if the proposed Gregory Canyon landfill is allowed to be built. Poison water.

Rod Miller

San Marcos

Grateful Tri-City was available when needed

On March 9, I brought my husband to the emergency room at Tri-City Medical Center with heart-related symptoms. We want to thank all the people that were involved in his care. In the ER, there were Drs. Showah, Demers and Robert Lee and nurses Juvy and Joda, auxiliary volunteer Dick and many others whose names I did not write down.

He subsequently was admitted and had a stent inserted and was a guest of the facility until March 12. I'm sorry I did not write down his room number and the names of all the nurses and staff that took care of him, and I am hoping that you will all be made aware of our thanks and appreciation.ˇ

During this stay, we had contact with technicians, transport, nurses, lab, nuclear medicine, cardiology (specifically Dr. Speigel), cath lab, and of course, auxiliary volunteers. We feel the excellent care at TCMC is provided by everyone: employees, doctors, nurses, technicians and volunteers, and each of you should be proud of the quality of care that you provide.

Our family is grateful that we have Tri-City Medical Center available to us when we need it.

RoseMarie Castellano

Oceanside

Build stadium, but not in river valley

I happen to live in the San Luis Rey Valley. I go jogging all the time up on the top of the riverbank bike trail, and from my viewpoint, I don't think Oceanside needs the Chargers stadium to be located there. One major reason is the high-powerline towers located right next to the drive-in, and the Oceanside airport.

What is really needed in our area is a Costco store. All the surrounding cities â€"â€" Carlsbad, Vista and San Marcos â€"â€" all have a Costco store. But we do have three Wal-Marts. I believe that building a Costco store in that area of San Luis Rey Valley would be a great benefit to the local community so that our own tax dollars would stay here instead of the nearby cities and would also help to generate more good-paying jobs in Oceanside.

The area to build the Chargers stadium should be up in the El Corazon area, up on Rancho Del Oro and Oceanside Boulevard. This area is not near any power towers or airports, but is not too far from the I-5 freeway.

I believe that Oceanside could use the development of both of these projects.

Ed Lugan

Oceanside

Wind power no panacea

Taking many trips across the windy plains of the West over the years, I have seen the incredible growth of the wind farms. Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado, in particular.

In Galveston, I saw where some of the giant parts are being imported (so much United States jobs here). I mentioned some months ago in a letter that I found that very few windmills are hooked up to the electrical grid. Now I find that the cost of power from "wind energy farms" that the government is pushing so hard and subsidizing construction (tax dollars) will be very high.

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, wind power will cost more than 30 cents per kwh as compared with 10 cents we pay now. Hooking wind power electricity to the grid costs anywhere from $8 to $90 per kw, depending on how far it has to go. These machines are huge, with 100-foot blades atop 300-foot stanchions.

See what happens in high winds when the brake fails; go look on YouTube, and see why the insurance is also very expensive. Again, why not nuclear energy?

Trent Hamlin

Vista