Letters to the Editor Policy

Merry Christmas Doc

Last year I had heart surgery. I was in the hospital for 2 months due to complications. My bill totaled $288,000.00. Thank goodness I had Medicare and supplemental insurance. Or so I thought.

Recently I received a bill from one of the doctors. This bill had been sent to my insurance 5 times to no avail. I was asked to call my insurance to get this bill paid.

With Christmas near I felt sorry for the doctor. He probably needed the money. I didn’t want to waste any time so I used my own envelope and my own stamp and wrote him a check from my social security. I paid the entire balance of $12.36. Merry Christmas Doc.

Sincerely,

Lillian Carr

New Milford, PA

Preparing For The Next War

Mr. Obama's West Point speech was a masterly sleigh-of-hand performance. While everyone was watching his right hand detailing his second escalation in Afghanistan, his left hand was setting the stage for the next war: Pakistan.

Scattered in his speech were seven references coupling the war in Afghanistan with its neighbor to the East.

The President: “After escaping across the border into Pakistan . . . al Qaeda's leadership established a safe haven there.”

Comment: We've been there forty years ago. The Viet Cong used Laos as a “safe haven.” Now al Qaeda and the Taliban are proving to be just as uncontainable.

The President: The “Taliban [is] engaging in increasingly brazen and devastating acts of terrorism against the Pakistani people.”

Comment: Rephrasing: Pakistan needs our help and the President via the military is anxious to go marching in.

The President: “I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Comment: The linkage of Afghanistan with Pakistan and the security of our nation, however murky, is established.

The President: “And the stakes are even higher with a nuclear-armed Pakistan.”

Comment: Afghanistan takes second place. It is only the gateway to our real objective, Pakistan.

The President: “Our overarching goal remains the same: . . . defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Comment: To achieve that, at some point grunts on the ground will have to cross the border into Pakistan. It may not be inevitable, but the probability is high.

The President: “We must deny al Qaeda a safe-haven.”

Comment: This is going to be an open-ended war where victory is impossible to define, territorial boundaries are unrestricted, and an exist strategy is ignored. It can only lead to the military and financial exhaustion of the U.S.

The President: “[T]his same cancer has also taken root in the border region of Pakistan. That is why we need a strategy that works on both sides of the border.”

Here's the strategy . . .

It is a three-pronged attack. First, the White House will bulk up the CIA's budget for operations inside Pakistan. Second, covert forces will be sent into Pakistan to locate enemy positions. And third, drone strikes will be stepped-up against suspected targets in Pakistan.

The Obama administration has already approved 42 drone strikes during a three-month period, a record high. But launching missile from unmanned aircraft is inherently imprecise. While militants have been killed so have civilians.

The New America Foundation claims that since the attacks began in 2006, about 1,000 people have been slain, one-third of whom were civilians.

Not only has the intensity of drone attacks increased, but their purview may be expanded into Balochistan, a Pakistani province that encompasses 40 percent of that nation's land area.

This intended expansion puts the U.S. at loggerheads with the Pakistani government. They, together with the citizenry, and especially the Taliban, are strongly opposed to expanding the range of missile-firing drones.

It's a classic catch 22; the more we fight against the militants, the stronger the opposition become. The U.S. has become the raison d'etre for the Taliban and al Qaeda. Or is it the other way around? The terror twins are the raison d'etre for the U.S. military.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

That Sucking Sound

Ross Perot coined the phrase during the 1992 Presidential election campaign. The sound described what he perceived (rightly) that NAFTA would do, that is take US jobs away. Clinton passed NAFTA and, as a result of it and more, I challenge you to find a meaningful selection of USA made goods in your Walmart. More on that another day but, for now, how many of you can remember the sound of a Surge milking machine? The dairy industry is long gone in our area, for many reasons common to our entire economy but my point is this: The sucking sound you are hearing now is the sound of our Freedom being taken from us. We are under unprecedented attack from Progressive politicians who are driven to impose their views on an unwilling population. Take for example the current press for universal (government controlled) healthcare, opposed by more than half the electorate. We all know that there are areas of healthcare which need fixing, but not by a 2000 plus page document which gives the Federals control of one sixth of our economy and a major say in the what and how of our healthcare. The Surge “rememberers” are the ones who will be the first to be negatively affected. Both our Congressman, Chris Carney of Dimock, and our Senator, the turncoat Arlen Spector, are voting for this measure.

On another point, on Monday last, the EPA, a bureaucracy created by Congress in 1970, declared that carbon dioxide was a threat to human health. They (the bureaucrats) will be issuing directives, at their complete discretion, regarding the emission of CO2 by any and all entities which emit CO2. The absurdity of this is apparent when you consider that CO2 is the lifeblood of all living plant matter. The first industries which will be impacted will be coal fired electrical power plants, producing a full 50 percent of our nation’s electricity. While we (the USA) oppose the construction of more and new nuclear power plants, the EPA plans on imposing very costly (to you) restrictions on power plant emissions. The result will be skyrocketing electricity costs, according to President Obama. Oh, by the way, every time you exhale, you exhale CO2. Since this is all nothing more than an exercise in POWER AND CONTROL, consider that, along with government controlled healthcare, you may find that in your golden years, you will be declared a hazard to the planet. Ever read George Orwell’s novel 1984?

Sincerely,

Joe McCann

Elk Lake, PA

Thumbs Down

Again I had the privilege of watching C-span on cable today. After listening to a few congressmen speak on the record in behalf of us Americans, I must say thumbs down.

I say that because most of them quoted lines from editorials or news articles and not one of them depicts a heart felt response from any one person, like a farmer. I assume that while letters to the editor do bring likes and dis-likes from the few public who care enough to read, newspaper editors have a job.

Look around town, look around the closest city, look for a farm. Not too many farms left, huh? The real words that need to be brought to the floor of the house are the facts told to each congressmen across our country and those facts are, save the food supply of the world and stop the fleecing of the American farmers (which should be acted on immediately).

The law reads that if a certain percent of off farm jobs don't exist then the farmers get paid more for their products in order to keep producing. Can you imagine? All the imports from countries like China who can produce it for less, and are shoved down our throats, because most of us either don't care or can't afford or don't know any better! As long as there is something to eat, HUH?

Well maybe if our local congressmen read this letter it will hit the floor of our congress, but I doubt it. The farmers need a cost of production and a living wage for what ever they produce!

Sincerely ,

Peter A. Seman

Thompson, PA

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Thank you, Susquehanna County Transcript

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