In response to guest column "I cannot remain silent any longer" by Stan Erikson, October 23rd.
The article is the same tired Democrats’ political talking points. About the infamous 16 words in the State of the Union Address: What Mr. Bush said was that British intelligence reports that Iraq tried to purchase enriched uranium from Niger. British Intelligence stands by their report to this day. So what the President said was factual. Mr. Erikson represents himself as "a registered Republican" but the only Stanley Erikson voter registration here shows no party affiliation and he has not been involved in any local Republican group.
It took better than four (4) years of occupation of Germany and Japan after WW II and a much larger percentage of our GDP with the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. Now we expected miracles in just 4 months.
Instead of denying the existence of WMD: Truth is better served by saying that Iraq had listed (in their own disclosure documents) thousands of tons of biological and chemical weapons that were never accounted for, and the UN inspectors were at a loss to account for their whereabouts. There were no documents or credible testimony as to their destruction – so where did they go. Thousands of chemical warfare protection garments were found by our troops in Iraq were not Halloween costumes!
We lost about 2 trillion dollars in one day from our economy and lost 3,000 lives on 9-11-2001. Two years later, the stock market has had a record run, business is back, GDP has grown by a huge 7.2 % rate in the 3rd quarter (the faster growth of the economy in 20 years). The tax cut stimulus obviously worked.
Wars are fought between concepts of good and evil. We are at war against an evil that wants to destroy us, murder our children and wipe our democracy from the face of the world. It breeds and trains evil faster than we are able to destroy them. The costs today are only a sign of what is yet to come. So I am proud that we have a President with the courage to call evil by its name and stand against it.
Let’s support our military and our President as he leads this war on terror. As a Vietnam veteran I can tell you first hand of the negative impact upon the troops when they are sent to war for America and then those Americans with the least knowledge and a political agenda constantly attack the Commander in Chief. By implication it tells the troops that what they are doing is somehow wrong, not supported back home and therefore their buddies that died did so for nothing. That is a tough position to be in. Let’s keep the troops in mind as we go through this political year.
Dan Hall
Mountain Home, AR
November 15, 2003
|
