Letters to the Editor Policy

Help Wanted

The PODS company in Scranton has generously donated the use of a POD storage unit and has delivered it to Lanesboro.

We are accepting donations of clean, usable household items in good condition for the families that suffered a loss when the roof collapsed on the Laurel Hill Apts. building. One family is an elderly brother and sister, the other is a young couple with a three-year old daughter. We are in need of living room furniture, bedding, dressers, small kitchen appliances, kitchen/dining set, TV’s, some toys and other items too numerous to mention. Clothing is not needed. We will accept non-perishable food items to distribute throughout the building when the tenants all return.

If you think you may have something you would like to donate or would like more information, please feel free to call Mary Ann, 853–3597 or Pat, 853–3524.

Sincerely,

Mary Ann Figueroa

Susquehanna, PA

What Next?

In the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court decision upholding a ban on so-called "Partial Birth Abortion", anti-abortion obsessives have been crowing that this marks the beginning of the end of legal abortion. They'll now go to work furiously to chip away at it in multiple ways. Ultimately, they hope, they can criminalize it in virtually all instances. What I've been asking them for years, without ever getting an answer:

Will you be content with an unenforceable, totally symbolic statement that "Abortion is Wrong!"? If not, what do you propose to do?

I've been saying for years: Go ahead – make abortion illegal. That'll sure stop it! The sarcasm illustrates the fact that if abortion is made illegal as you demand, it will still go on. Women will find doctors willing to ignore the law, foolish women will go to risky back-alley abortionists, desperate women will even self-abort. They always have and always will.

Will you tolerate this state of affairs? Or will your fetus fetishism move you to attempt to prevent illegal abortion no matter what it takes? Because what it takes would be the most comprehensive totalitarianism ever attempted on Earth. Women would need to be incarcerated between puberty and menopause to ensure that they neither seek abortion, nor self-abort. All freedom would die for the sake of fetuses. The resources expended to create a state devoted to abortion prevention would be staggering, to the point of economic collapse.

So I ask again: Will you be content with an unenforceable ban, just as long as it's officially declared that Abortion is Wrong? Will you then withdraw from public life and stop trying to run other people's lives? Or will you hold us all hostage to your fetus mania, or other moralistic obsessions? I am waiting for an answer, and I am not the only one.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA

Play It Again, Sam

Is Commissar-in-Chief Bush preparing for a regional war in the Mideast war? A surge force of 21,500 combat and 8,000 support troops are being added to the existing 140,000 combat troops in Iraq. Supposedly, it's to quell the violence. But why should 160,000 combat soldiers be able to do today what that same number failed to do in 2005? What is the real reason the "war president" is asking for and getting 30,000 additional troops?

The administration has always cloaked its intentions in paternal altruism. Iraq needed to be liberated. The world needed to be saved from an Iraqi nuclear terror bomb. A tyrant madman needed to be deposed. And, most important, a western-friendly "democratic" government needed to be installed.

Ostensibly, then, the surge is meant to stem the Mideast mayhem. Sounds sufficiently high-minded, even noble. But the bloodshed grows apace with the occupation force. This month a terrorist penetrated the heavily guarded Green Zone. Then, foiling three checkpoints, he gained entrance into the Iraqi parliament. He detonated his suicide vest, killing eight in the very inner sanctum of the Green Zone.

Clearly, extra troops will have little impact on the growing chaos, but that was never their purpose. The surge force, together with another 20,000 are being stationed along the Iraq-Iran border. If President Bush decides – and remember, he's the "decider" – to start another war, his third, this one against Iran, this force will be in position to thwart any retaliatory response from Iran.

While the stated purposes of invading Iraq have all been colossal failures, the two unstated goals have been eminently successful. First, petroleum production is in the hands of U.S. and British companies. They will receive 75 percent of the profits. And second, the establishment of a permanent military footprint in the world's oil heartland.

As early as 2003, The New York Times reported that "the U.S. is planning a long-term military relationship with... Iraq." Those plans are well underway.

The U.S. is constructing 14 permanent bases in that country. The Pentagon, however, shies away from the word "permanent," preferring instead the awkward but less revealing term, "enduring." The $82 billion building project envisions a line of strong points (in 'nam they were called fire support bases) running down the spine of Iraq. Capping this mammoth building program will be the world's largest embassy.

Embassy Baghdad is 10 times the size of the average U.S. embassy. The embassy is really a palisaded village. Its 104 acres encloses 21 buildings where 5,500 personnel live and work. The $1 billion fortress is completely self-contained. Water, electricity, sewage, and necessary staples are completely independent of Iraq. The compound is surrounded by a 15-foot high stone wall topped with razor wire and guard towers. In Pentagonese, it is "enduring."

Phase II, the control of the remaining portion of the Middle East's oil fields, has commenced. Like Iraq, Iran needs to be liberated. The world needs to be saved from an Iranian nuclear terror bomb. A tyrant madman needs to be deposed. And, most important, a western-friendly "democratic" government needs to be installed.

It's the same tune, but it played well for Uncle Sam the first time. Why not play it again, Sam?

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY
Letters To The Editor MUST BE SIGNED. They MUST INCLUDE a phone number for "daytime" contact. Letters MUST BE CONFIRMED VERBALLY with the author, before printing. At that time you may request to withhold your name. Letters should be as concise as possible, to keep both Readers' and Editors' interest alike. Your opinions are important to us, but you must follow these guidelines to help assure their publishing.

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