Standard comes with cost
The justification I continue to hear for the trade of five Taliban combatants to rescue Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is the ages-old "leave no soldier behind" principle.
Anyone who would oppose or even question the trade is quickly confronted with the question of whether they would have preferred to abandon the soldier instead, in effect coercing the person to either support the decision or be viewed as heartless and unpatriotic. For those of us who have served, especially during time of war, the answer is neither of the above.
I believe the right choice is that leave no soldier behind means we will never give up looking for one, and if found, will do whatever it takes to rescue him, but we will not negotiate deals with captors as long as hostilities exists.
Sgt. Bergdahl was not rescued. He was traded. In this case it not only returned five senior enemy combatants but gave the Taliban a huge political victory which they will use to promote their cause, which will almost certainly lead to more American military deaths, a trade no soldier who proudly wears the uniform would ever agree to.
As to reports of Bergdahl deserting his unit and post, that is not the issue here. He was still an American soldier and even those in his unit who said he is a deserter clearly stated that they would risk their lives to rescue him. The fellow soldiers of Sgt. Bergdahl's platoon also said the trade was wrong. They have the No Man Left Behind principle right.
A precedent has now been set that we will negotiate with the enemy. In the Army there is a saying, "A standard lowered is a new standard." We now have a new standard and it comes with a price yet to be paid.
WILLIAM D. FRALEY
Sherwood
Reasoned, at first
I concede that Common Core sounds reasonable at first glance. Who wants their kids taught Esperanto while more fortunate kids in the next school district learn English?
Then I remember that those who would run it are people who speak neither language. Yes, they know only one language, educanto, otherwise known as gibberish. I believe these folks would, if given the opportunity, expand their mandate to politically correct indoctrination.
Imagine Hillary Clinton as the Common Core czar.
CLIFFORD EATON
Danville
Don’t kiss the frog
What it is called is the Democrat Leap Frog game. It’s played like this. Barack Obama says “froggie” and Harry Reid leaps. Then Harry Reid says “froggie” and Mark Pryor leaps.
Seems to me that it is time for the people to call this game and send the players home. Remember in November!
JOHN G. VOWELL
Little Rock
^
The justification I continue to hear for the trade of five Taliban combatants to rescue Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is the ages-old “leave no soldier behind” principle.
Anyone who would oppose or even question the trade is quickly confronted with the question of whether they would have preferred to abandon the soldier instead, in effect coercing the person to either support the decision or be viewed as heartless and unpatriotic. For those of us who have served, especially during time of war, the answer is neither of the above.
I believe the right choice is that leave no soldier behind means we will never give up looking for one, and if found, will do whatever it takes to rescue him, but we will not negotiate deals with captors as long as hostilities exist.
Sgt. Bergdahl was not rescued. He was traded. In this case it not only returned five senior enemy combatants but gave the Taliban a huge political victory which they will use to promote their cause, which will almost certainly lead to more American military deaths, a trade no soldier who proudly wears the uniform would ever agree to.
As to reports of Bergdahl deserting his unit and post, that is not the issue here. He was still an American soldier and even those in his unit who said he is a deserter clearly stated that they would risk their lives to rescue him. The fellow soldiers of Sgt. Bergdahl’s platoon also said the trade was wrong. They have the No Man Left Behind principle right.
A precedent has now been set that we will negotiate with the enemy. In the Army there is a saying, “A standard lowered is a new standard.” We now have a new standard and it comes with a price yet to be paid.
WILLIAM D. FRALEY
Sherwood
Allegiance is pledged
It appears Mark Pryor thinks storytelling will save his office, but I think the only story worth telling is his allegiance to Barack Obama.
A.D. MONDAY
Searcy
Saving us from insult
The politically correct police have successfully banned the B word, the C word and the N word, and now they are after the R word. All the usual do-gooders are involved, raising their impressive voices and waving their expressive arms in front of every camera/microphone. Sportscasters and writers refuse to utter or write the name. And now the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has pulled the trademark for the Washington NFL football team.
The PTO says the R word is an ethnic insult to American Indians. Pulling the trademark means only that the football team cannot prevent others from using the R word and logo. If the PTO action withstands legal scrutiny, anyone can use the R word/logo without paying the team. That will mean we all can make money on the insulting name and logo.
Maybe this latest government attempt at censorship will spawn badly needed new businesses; amazing what can happen when our government acts to make sure we are never insulted. An unintended consequence? In this case, that darn First Amendment was in the way of cleaning up our speech. By what power can the government save us? PTO to the rescue! Let’s get started on book, movie, TV titles, and racial, ethnic, sexual, religious words galore. We won’t forget the names of cars. My Redskinned Grand Cherokee may be labeled disparaging soon.
The R team owner could change its name. Or, since Donald Trump wants to buy a sports team, perhaps he could buy it and change the name to the Washington Trumpers. Of course it might insult card-game bridge players who use trumps to overpower their opponents.
Then the politically correct police can go after that insensitive T word.
TOM MURRAY
Bella Vista
Priorities are wacky
The notion that rural Pulaski County where I live will no longer have access to recycling dropoffs illustrates a pretty wacky set of priorities. I was particularly interested in what programs might be “more meaningful” and will take to heart the county judge’s advice to just “put it in the trash.”
I guess spending millions on building multiple recreational bridges and stringing carnival lights on them is a lot more meaningful than doing a little something to reduce the amount of trash we put in landfills.
ALAN EASTHAM
Roland
Efficient, professional
I want to thank and compliment the efficiency, competency, and professionalism of the 911 dispatcher, Pulaski County EMTs, Pulaski County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Sternberg, and the UAMS Emergency Department staff.
On June 18, a friend and I were riding our bikes at 9 a.m. near Maumelle Park. A stick caught in my friend’s tire, and she took a terrible tumble over her handlebars. The dispatcher stayed on the line until the ambulance’s swift appearance. The deputy drove me and the two bikes back to the Big Dam Bridge.
I am happy that my tax dollars go to such great services!
BETTINA BROWNSTEIN
Little Rock
Historical amnesia?
The recent editorial calling upon America in general and President Barack Obama in particular to do something to stop the rot in Iraq joins a tremulous chorus of neo-con demands that the U.S. use its power to bring peace and stability to the Islamic world. This was the same cry raised a decade ago by the Cheney-Wolfowitz-Rumsfeld coalition, and taken up with a vengeance by the media, that gave our nation the blessings of the Second Iraqi War. Bring down the evil dictator, instruct the welcoming Iraqi people on the glories of democracy, make the world safer and cheap oil more plentiful.
A great deal of money was spent and many lives were lost or shattered until, on the advice of a commanding general who saw the futility of continued death, destruction and internecine slaughter, a lot of that money was used to gain the fragile support of the leaders of a powerful Sunni minority. Violence diminished, unsteady stability was established. We had won the war and a peaceful, prosperous friendly Iraq would emerge. Somehow, in the end, all that did not work out.
A decade later, with an unfriendly Iraqi government facing a self-induced crisis, the same neo-cons are swooped out of deserved obscurity and back into the media spotlight. Why, they clamor—joined by friends in Arkansas—doesn’t our feckless president use the great power at his command to bring peace and stability to Iraq?
Is there such a thing as historical amnesia? Responding to the cry to “do something,” our president will send 300 soldiers to Iraq. Oh good! Would there be more peace and stability if he sent 3,000 or 30,000 or 300,000? I wonder.
THOMAS KENNEDY
Fayetteville
A win-win proposal
Please drop Wumo, Lio, and Mutts altogether. Bring Dustin, Baby Blues, and Pearls Before Swine to the main comics page. We all win.
You win by saving the cost of the three comics dropped, you save space to use for something more interesting, and we all win by having our favorites altogether on the main comics page.
CARROLL WILLIAMS
Conway
End life with dignity
Re the Emily Esfahani Smith article in Perspective on suicide: What a bunch of arrogant, self-righteous drivel. Who are Smith and Jennifer Hecht to tell anyone what they can or cannot do with their own body? Who are they to assume they know better what goes on in the mind of someone contemplating suicide? Who are they to assume that one suicide will somehow magically affect a whole community, let alone “humanity?”
Sorry, but not all people who take their own lives are victims of “the tyranny of their emotions.” Lots of very rational, sane and mature people make this decision.
People with terminal diseases, Alzheimer’s patients who see their own minds disintegrating, people in unendurable pain—these are just a few types of people who should have every right to determine their own end. Socrates and Hunter Thompson, both of whom I greatly admired, ended their own lives. I admire them for the courage they showed, not just in making the decision, but also in carrying it out.
I totally support the right of individuals with the conditions I described to end their lives with dignity and in as little pain as possible. I’ve seen too many people suffer the crippling effects of these diseases. Is this the fate you want for yourself or your loved ones? Suffering is not always a temporary condition, as might be inferred from the article.
I support any and all legislation that gives people suffering needlessly the option of a dignified, painless death. I support lethal prescriptions in these cases. The last act of love we can give our pets is euthanasia when they are suffering continually and needlessly.
It’s indeed a cruel world when our pets have it better than we do.
BRAD BAILEY
Fayetteville
Chip on his shoulder
Mr. Bradley Gitz, I presume, was making observations from actually attending the Washington (D.C.?) conference “at which prominent Catholic intellectuals” were gathered to discuss the plight of the poor in the world.
The Catholic view was described as socialism, elitism, moral preening, and implied to be communism.
What was his point?
Was it that the Catholic Church was all talk and no action? Hmm. Catholic hospitals (nonprofit). Catholic schools, which do not receive one penny from the U.S. government. Catholic charities—does Mother Teresa sound familiar?
Catholics feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, donate to disaster-relief funds, adopt orphans, visit the sick, etc. How is all of this good work being funded? I guess the faithful of the Catholic Church, not the “preening moralists,” are making it happen.
Mr. Gitz sounds like he has a chip on his shoulder. Remove the plank from your eye before you berate a church that has a very long history of caring for the neediest people.
CAROL MASON
Little Rock