Unfettered Letters

War is not the answer

As the antithesis of anti-war is pro-war, I choose fervently and confidently to be anti-war. For me, that means I am against the death and destruction that we, the American people, are inflicting on those who live in war-torn parts of the world where we employ our combat troops. We should bring our combat troops home now. Really, we should have never sent them in the first place. We’re not eradicating terrorists. Rather, we’re destroying livelihoods and lives of innocent women, children and families. I believe in God’s commandment “thou shall not kill.”

We human beings, regardless of nationality, race, creed, sexual orientation or other differences, have the God-given ability to find a peaceful manner of getting along in the world. I choose to love all of God’s people equally, no matter where they are in the world or to what religion they ascribe. I continue to pray that we’ll all learn to do the same. Imagine what the world will look like when that prayer is granted.

I don’t claim to have the final answer, but I do know, without any grain of doubt, that war is not the answer.

Sarah Cool
Cherith Brook Community member
Kansas City

No apology needed

Missouri Rep. Bryan Stevenson need not apologize for calling the Civil War “the War of Northern Aggression” (2/11, Local). Actually, I call it “the War of Yankee Arrogance.” But due to the politically correct stance that is current today, stating my southern sympathies would be like talking to a wall.

However, if Stevenson’s Cherokee Indian heritage is a factor, remember this: After the war, the Yankees broke treaties, made huge land grabs, committed rape, genocide and put Indians in concentration camps. (Oh, excuse me, I mean reservations.)

Stevenson should apologize only for the apology itself.

Greg Miller
Overland Park

War hasn’t kept us safe

“Post hoc, ergo propter hoc,” means, “following this, therefore, because of this;” i.e., because one event follows another, the former must have caused the latter. Example: “My taking heavy doses of vitamin C is how I escaped colds this year.”

Many persons unknowingly invoke the above Latin phrase to explain ex-President Bush’s invasion of Iraq and his use of numerous questionable practices and policies as the reason for our avoiding another major attack. I am reminded of the rooster who thought his crowing caused the sun to rise until he overslept one morning.

Ford Thompson
Independence

Praise for Liberty Memorial

As a young boy and through my early 20s I visited the Liberty Memorial several times. It had been more than 40 years since my last visit. On Jan. 21, my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting the memorial once more. I was impressed with the new facilities. What a great improvement. The volunteers were very knowledgeable and helpful.

Also present that day were three busloads of students. I was happy to see them as there are things to be learned at the memorial that were not in my history books. And the students were well behaved. I might add the memorial has a research center for further studies.

Bill Schaffer
Independence

War criminals must be prosecuted

A recent letter writer (1/28) criticized columnist Eugene Robinson’s opinion that a light must be shined upon the truth about torture (1/25, Opinion), saying that it was just the Democrats’ desire to jail predecessors and thus stay in power.

Eric Holder, President Obama’s choice for attorney general, testified recently that waterboarding was indeed torture, a war crime. So far, only a few underlings who performed waterboarding have been prosecuted. The Nuremberg War Trials determined that “the officer ordered me to do it” excuse is not a valid defense.

How many more carried out orders to commit war crimes, and who gave the orders? Donald Rumsfeld? Dick Cheney? Others?

Will our country “stand up” on this point, “dust itself off,” and prosecute all who are guilty, thereby removing the torture tarnish from Lady Justice and making her blind, just and shiny again? Americans ought to demand it.

Byron A. Stewart Jr.
Independence

Bishop doesn’t speak for all Catholics

I wish to express my apology to Jack Mandelbaum (2/3, Letters, “Holocaust-denying bishop”) for the hurt that has come from the views and opinions of Richard Williamson, a bishop of the Pius X Society. Williamson does not speak for any Catholic I know, and the views of this individual in no way represent people of the Catholic Church.

It is important that we focus our common efforts on the work of peace and harmony. No individual should or can get in the work of God’s wish for unity and peace.

The Rev. Gerald Waris
Pastor, St. Patrick Parish
Kansas City

Holocaust-denying bishop

I must respond to Bishop Richard Williamson’s claim that not one Jew died in gas chambers (1/28, A-8, “The defense doesn’t rest; Vatican stresses pontiff’s record of denouncing the Holocaust”). He also claims there were no gas chambers. Oh, how I wish he was right.

I am the sole survivor of my immediate family. If his statement were correct, my mother, age 42, my sister, age 17, and my brother, age 10, would have died of natural causes in old age. Instead, their lives were smothered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Belzec. After suffering the horror of Stutthof concentration camp, my father was also murdered.

Denying the Holocaust was ruled to be a sin by Pope John Paul II. Bishop Williamson was excommunicated from the church by Pope John Paul II, yet now the Vatican is bringing him back into the fold. This is an outrage!

I’m 82 years old. I have difficulty accepting the fact that educated people would try to rewrite history in my lifetime. Can’t these revisionists at least wait until we survivors are dead to rewrite history?

Jack Mandelbaum
Overland Park

Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan

I just watched a television special on the wars in Afghanistan and the tribal areas next door in Pakistan. The wars are not going well, to say the least. The situations look hopeless from a military point of view. A few extra U.S. troops are not going to turn the wars around.

NATO is not doing much, if any fighting. There is no strategy to win, and our too-few troops in Afghanistan are like sitting ducks in remote outposts, much like Vietnam.

Both countries have unpopular governments. We are losing the support of the local populations. The Taliban or insurgents and al-Qaida are talking about taking over neighboring Pakistan.

The big problem with a takeover in Pakistan is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. It may be time for letters and phone calls to our representatives asking, “What are we doing there? What is the plan to secure the nukes?”

Clark Redick
Mission Hills

Future of war on terror

In considering the article “President Cites Gains in 2 Wars” (12/15, A-1), I do not disagree that merits have been gained in both theaters. As a veteran of multiple tours in Iraq, I have seen firsthand the progress that has been made in providing stability and a new way of life to the Iraqi people.

However, I do have concerns regarding Afghanistan. Unlike Iraq, the culture and demographics are significantly different. The people are extremely provisional with more loyalty to their clan or ethnic group than to a government or country. A rapid “surge” of combat troops could be misconstrued by the rural population and stir up memories of the mistakes made by the Soviets in 1980s.

An optimal solution would be to provide additional military transition teams and advisers, using our soldier and civilian personnel, to the Afghanistan Army and government. This would continue our trend to best establish self-sufficiency by fostering their own independence.

Maj. Christoper R. Thompson
Student, Command and General Staff College
Fort Leavenworth

Let Korean War’s past remain buried

The article “Unearthing a grim history” (12/7, A-20) depicts the U. S. military brutality during the Korean War, in which thousands of innocent South Korean civilians were executed.

However gruesome the incident might have been, as a Korean who lived through the war and witnessed her native country struggling, growing, and becoming what she is today, I’d say, “Let the past remain buried.”

The article doesn’t change anything about those who fought in it. If readers understand that the U.S. helped South Koreans establish the CIC, the Korean CIA, and that Syngman Rhee, then the South Korean president, pleaded with the American military advisers to save his ill-fated nation from bloodthirsty communists at any cost at the time of invasion, they might get a better picture of this tragic incident.

The Korean War was a war in which brothers fought brothers; the enemy didn’t come marked as such. American troops were often viciously attacked by communists disguised as innocent Korean civilians.

If an American military officer is responsible for thousands of lost Korean lives six decades ago, Syngman Rhee is equally responsible. But he was buried in 1965 and remains buried.

Therese Park
Overland Park