LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Stop Poking Iran

So, just how far does the US expect Iran to bend to our will? Putting our oil interests aside for now, we are playing gotcha with Iran over it’s nuclear energy development plans. Question: How far would have the concepts of independence been able to evolve in colonial America had we not been over-lorded by Great Britain? Well, we don’t know because it didn’t go down that way. The British interfered with the colonials in similar fashion to the way we interfere with the country of Iran today.

Who made us king of the world anyway? They have a similar right to their destiny as we had back in the 1700s. In other words, why was it okay for the colonies to deny being ruled by the British, but not okay for Iranians to object to overtly interfering nations such as the US? The “Do as I say, not as I do” policy, I guess. On the one hand we show respect for, and share alliances and common interests with, countries that have a history of foreign domination of other peoples and their lands. Again the British Empire was attained by force. Ruled by rich, powerful, military interlopers. These are the kind of friends we keep. The Iranians, I suspect, support Palestine because of the way Israel inserted itself into the area, and the way it has behaved ever since. Kind of like when the French supported us during the Revolutionary War. When a country’s freedom is in peril what better cause than to come to another ones aid. Especially when no one else can or cares to be a friend.

There has been a lot of finger poking at Iran of late. If you poke long and hard enough you are bound to lose a finger or two. No nukes for you Iran? How about no nukes for Israel? I’ll bet Iran would swear off of them if that happened. They might still want them though because of the heavily armed neighborhood they live in. Pakistan and India, China and the Soviets all being armed to the teeth. Let’s hope that the rich, powerful, military interlopers of our country are kept in check, and not allowed to pull another Iraq scam on us. Have you been to a VA hospital or clinic lately? There are full parking lots at them all. While we honor and deeply appreciate all that have served in our armed forces, we also have the right to denounce any unnecessary foreign interventions. But, we all need to be a part of the team. Write a letter to a publication, a local state or national public figure, or start a movement of your own. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to just ride this one out. We need to at least try to preserve the good that still exists in our nation.

Gary Cummings
Menasha, Wis.

Rein In Overzealous Prosecution

Again in the 8/15/15 TPP several articles (“Corrective Sentencing Laws” by John Kiriakou; “Obama Gets Real About Criminal Justice Reform” by Sharda Sekaran) about logical sentencing for minor crimes — Amen! Now please expose that when a government gives itself, and everyone else, immunity to lie in court — 42 USC 1983 [which allows civil lawsuits against the government for deprivation of rights] — reason and effect is to procure convictions on outlandish charges, so the public can be confused into believing these people are actually guilty of heinous crimes. A country boasting over 3,200 non-violent life-without-parole inmates obviously has no qualms ruining innocent lives to further their political careers. We with over seven times the inmate population of 1930-1975 per capita are being misled this government is the least bit concerned with us, as we are being sacrificed for their glory — oops, delusions of glory.

Robert Angelini
LaGrange, Ky.

Nuclear Sense

Re: “Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 70 Years Later” by Amy Goodman [9/1/15 TPP], I’m sure that even someone with below average intelligence understands that to destroy the world with nuclear weapons to defeat an enemy would literally be the last Pyrrhic victory in world history, and not a smart option to contemplate.

Why then, I wonder, do so many heads of state, whom we assume have above average intelligence, insist that their nations must possess nuclear weapons with which to threaten their adversaries?

On second thought, does it take great intelligence to abolish nuclear weapons – or just common sense?

David Quintero
Monrovia, Calif.

War is Waste

From the point of view of economics, war is the stupidest waste of resources it is possible to think of! The various weapons and ammunition, created at enormous expense, are shot off into the air or ocean. Multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers, bombers, missile silos, trillion-dollar collections of missiles, rust, rot and fall apart or are thrown away — a total loss! Cynics say it props up our economy. True. So do food stamps, unemployment insurance, welfare, housing subsidies, Social Security, disability payments, Medicare, Medicaid. The latter are an investment in people, that potentially pays off in the long run. The former are lost and gone forever, without exception.

George Washington warned us not to get involved in the squabbles, wars and fighting among the European countries. Such wars eventually ruined all of them. Dwight Eisenhower warned us to beware of the “military-industrial complex,” which profits from wars all over the world, and so promotes such wars. Yes! We must defend ourselves from foreign enemies, as we did up until 1950. After that, it was an orgy for the war profiteers.

Notice how our enemies have increased in numbers and power as we became a military empire. There never used to be such a thing as ISIS, or Al-Nusra, or Boko-Haram, etc., until we started arming, bombing and invading a lot of foreign countries. Who profits from it? The owners of the war industries, and the politicians promoting them. If I had my way, all their profits would be taken from them with taxes, and given to the refugees and homeless.

Our most valuable asset is labor! It is labor of all kinds that creates valuable goods and services — food, clothes, houses, cars, apartments, trains, buses, reservoirs, sewers, roads, bridges, TVs, cell phones, libraries, music, art museums, etc. It is stupid beyond description to waste it, or fail to pay for it!

Harvey Stoneburner
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Trump It

An Open Letter to Congress: Like it or not — like Donald Trump or not — as a Congressional body, you have created Trump just as you created Ross Perot in the ’90s. They both have said what the public generally feels but doesn’t have the money to say. You know it well — money, money, money ... The golden rule — the gold rules and slippery gold rules you. A typical government procedure is to fix a problem after a tragedy. Is that the plan regarding our debt, job loss, current deficit/borrowing and money printing? Do we need bread lines before you wake up?

Your actions (Kids in a sandbox, bickering, lying, corruption, double-talk, bowing to legalized bribery [a.k.a. lobbying], derogatory name-calling when an opponent disagrees with the point of view or proposal, changing the rules to suit when a point is to be debated or ruled upon along with other deceitful moves),along with your inactions, have all lowered your standing with the public.

You take superb care of yourselves first, the public (serfs in your view?) later. There are a few good apples in the barrel, but not enough to keep the air clear.

Get with the program. Compromise. Get things done, and most of all, Do What You Were Elected To Do — GOVERN.

Stop the party-against-party rhetoric. No one person or one group has the only correct and honest answer to a given problem. Get back to taking care of this country and stop trying to buy the affairs of countries around the world. It doesn’t work.

GROW UP! The Public Is Fed Up! Or will you just sweep that under the rug also and pretend it isn’t a fact? This country needs some real leadership, not empty, non-commital words.

Wesley R. Keep
Whitefield, Maine

Correction

In the 9/15/15 TPP, an article on “What do Republican Candidates Stand For” on page 11 had the wrong byline. It was written by Bob Burnett.

From The Progressive Populist, October 1, 2015


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