LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — McChrystal was correct

Gen. Stanley McChrystal has said what everyone already knows-Barack Obama lacks experience, knowledge and skill in handling the war in Afghanistan.

Reportedly, it is widely held within the military that Obama is incompetent and unprepared at best. Unfortunately, his ability levels in leadership, decision-making and experience are clearly lacking.

We see that “No-Drama Obama” shows little emotion in dealing with 10 percent unemployment or the Gulf oil leak. However, when he is criticized, we then find he is said to be “livid.”

In my opinion, McChrystal is a hero. Although not politically correct, he has the courage and integrity to speak the truth. He knows through experience and direct contact with the enemy what it takes to wage and win a war. Look for the White House to attack him now and try to discredit him.

Given his military record and comparing it to Obama’s lack of a record, we can understand why McChrystal made his remarks. At what point will the media finally acknowledge what over 59 percent of the American people already know? The emperor is naked.

LINDA WASS Hot Springs Village

Impeach all of them

What in the world is this country coming to? Talk of the federal government suing the state of Arizona for passing a law which will allow Arizona to enforce federal law? A crowd of Democratic senators giving a standing ovation to Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon, for his criticism of the Arizona law?

A power-hungry president who claims authority to set limits on what business can pay its officials while he hires all his old cronies who want to participate in “transforming America” from a republic to a socialistic dictatorship? One who, with the blind help of the idiots in Congress, would require everyone to purchase health insurance and fine those who didn’t while robbing Medicare of premiums paid to enable him to further dictate?

A power-hungry Chicago community organizer who decries our dependence on foreign oil and then claims the power to declare a six

month moratorium on deep-sea drilling? Looks more like an effort to make us more dependent and possibly increase his chances to further enslave the citizenry as he pushes his cap-and-trade garbage.

Those standing-ovation senators as well as the power-hungry president should be immediately subject to impeachment charges and be required to attend a full-time class to study the Constitution of the United States of America and, again, swear an oath to uphold it.

L.J. TORKELSON Bella Vista

Fallen hero honored

On Father’s Day, I and several of my friends traveled to Batesville to pay honor to Army Cpl. William “Chris” Yauch. Yauch was killed inaction in Iraq on June 11 serving his country. We wanted to honor him and perhaps by our presence give some comfort to the family.

What we witnessed is what Yauch died for-small town America. As we drove into the town, all the flags were at half-staff, and as we continued to the church, we passed the staging area for the Patriot Guard and Freedom Riders. Hundreds of these patriots plus others readied to go to the church and stand a flag line for Yauch in 105-degree heat.

It seemed the whole town of 9,500 citizens plus surrounding communities were lining the streets from the church to the cemetery. For miles and miles these grateful Americans stood on both sides holding their flags. It was an unbelievable sight. As the hearse passed, flags were held high as hands covered hearts in tribute.

I was especially proud to be an American on this day. A thank-you to Batesville and Independence County, and to Yauch.

SHEILA BEATTY Hot Springs Village

Stop feeding frenzy

The 2010 midterm elections are America’s big opportunity to answer President Obama’s big-government agenda with a big, passionate Bronx cheer. The only way to stop the political hardball of the hard left is to strip him of his players.

Fill Congress with enough conservatives like John Boozman and Obama will be largely reduced to wielding his pen through executive orders and presidential vetoes. After November, the next job will be to take his pen away by booting him from office in 2012.

In the meantime, there is Sen. Blanche Lincoln. Whatever positives she represents, the penalties she has brought America are immeasurably worse. Hers was one of the key votes that gave the government the right to interfere between you and your doctors. Lincoln helped weave the Troubled Asset Relief Program into being, blanketing America with ever more debt at the very time we could least afford it. Whatever her noble intentions, these votes guarantee Arkansans a mounting bureaucracy and higher taxes.

Obama’s agenda has eaten away at our free markets and voraciously consumed our tax dollars. He is equally adept at eating moderates like Lincoln for breakfast. Only conservatives like Boozman can stop the president’s feeding frenzy. It’s time to serve up a bicameral breakfast of solid conservatives. It will take senators like Boozman to beat Obama.

BRUCE TUCKER Lonoke

Another way to cry

A question got brought up at work a couple of days ago and it made me think. It’s a crazy question, but it makes you wonder.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You cry like a girl.” How do you cry like a guy? Any thoughts?

SCOTT COOK Bearden

Thank a real teacher

Re the recent Perspective commentary, “Traditional schools aren’t working” by Katherine Mangu-Ward: While online education has its place and may very well be a viable option for some, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, or should I say the teacher out with the chalkboard?

I am an Arkansas licensed teacher with 13 years’ experience, and while the Internet is a component of my curriculum, it is not the center for learning. The online education is a tool, not a teacher. It is a resource, not a replacement.

Mangu-Ward wrote that “teachers have very few tools to gauge just how many students are grasping” concepts. Well, she hasn’t visited my classroom or many others using cutting-edge technology, hands-on, differentiated and multi-dimensional learning.

Real teachers teach the whole child, well-balanced, multifaceted and created for relationships. Real teachers are irreplaceable and if you can read this, thank one.

KAY MICHAEL Little Rock

Inexperience shows

Ethics (moral philosophy) are in short supply in our government at all levels. The recent comment that the president lacked ethics in forcing BP was exactly correct.

However, since politicians don’t know what ethics are, they blasted Rep. Joe Barton for his [claim] that Barack Obama was extorting BP forfunds. Whether or not that was the net result, it did occur at the presidential level and very few politicians in either party recognized it for what it was.

There is a great bit of experience that indicates that executive experience does count in leading a nation. The marked lack of such experience in our chief executive is shown in myriad decisions. For example, the lack of a decision two months ago to waive the Jones Act has caused oil to run up on the shore of many of our nation’s finest beaches. Why did that decision not take place? I guess you would have to ask the unions.

Another decision is to sue Arizona instead of meeting the burden of illegal immigration. It is most likely based on keeping Hispanics on board the re-election campaign. It is illustrative that many other decisions or lack thereof have equally self-serving purposes.

BARRETT A. METZLER Pine Bluff

Remark singled out

I feel that the quote of President Obama used in Mike Masterson’s recent column was a deliberate attempt to cast him in the worst light in comparison to other presidents.

Masterson decided to use a quote from a response to a question by “Today” host Matt Lauer. Of all the outstanding speeches the president has made, your columnist had to comb through them and present the one that would cast him in the worst light. Shame on you.

It is unconscionable to me that Masterson can’t find one thing that Obama has done right. However, I do agree with him that the media should always present information as fairly as possible, and in relevant context, especially when the partial information is used to cast anyone in a bad light. I hope that he follows his own advice.

ELEANOR COLEMAN Little Rock

Point of view curious

There was a story in a recent edition of my local paper stating that a woman was a “victim” of a [pigeondrop] scam. The “victim” alleged that she was scammed out of $5,000.

Since when is someone a victim when he or she conspires with someone else to split money that doesn’t belong to them and winds up being taken? If it isn’t yours, it isn’t yours. Turn it in.

BOBBY JOHNSON Conway

Vote in the balance

FOX News has announced that Republicans say that the White House is seriously thinking of offering amnesty to illegal aliens via executive order.

Everyone needs to immediately call both of our U.S. senators, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, and their U.S. congressman to voice their opinion. One individual should not have the power to allow millions of illegal aliens to gain legal access to the United States. The power to enable this should be solely in the hands of our elected legislators.

If the president manages to give amnesty to illegal aliens by executive order, mark my words, I will never vote for a Democrat.

BARON DAVIS Little Rock

Feedback Oil supply at peak

To understand the BP spill, you need to understand peak oil, which was predicted years ago by many geologists and other experts.

The peak is when half the world’s available oil is gone. The oil that remains is increasingly hard and expensive to recover. We’re at this point now. That’s why companies are going to deepsea drilling, which costs more and, as we have seen, is riskier.

It would not be quite so risky if the U.S. had regulations like other nations. For instance, Norway, the world’s second largest oil exporter, and other countries require deep-sea oil rigs to have remote control shutoff valves.

It’s no use calling for more land drilling in the United States because we passed our peak several decades ago. Sorry, folks, we just have to accept that we can’t have everything we want. The lollipops are not in infinite supply, and we can’t blame Barack Obama or environmentalists or other countries.

CORALIE KOONCE Fayetteville

Help truly needed

My God, do you mean to tell me none of the oil companies knows how to plug an oil well? Lord, where is Red Adair when we really need him?

C.S. MARTIN Cherokee Village