If people would like our democracy to survive, we must again go back to teaching our children Civics. There are no schools in Pennsylvania teaching a year-long course in real Civics. And no, I'm not talking US. Government, that is a completely different course of study. President Trump, a Republican, won the 2017 Election over Hillary Clinton, who is married to former President Bill Clinton-both Democrats. President Bill Clinton, during his time in Office sent the U.S.A's top rocket Scientists to Communist China, because their Leader (at that time) stated “We cannot even put a potato in Orbit". Now, Communist China does whatever it pleases, to cause major trouble around our USA and the World. In Finance (trade unbalance), Military (South China Seas and other Areas), Religion (Communism does not believe in God), Pro-Life (meaning protecting Babies – both born and unborn). Hillary Clinton (who ran against President Trump and lost 'big time') was awarded the Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood murders over 340,000 Babies in our USA every year!

Mr.Eck, your Mother was Pro-Life and definitely did not believe in abortion, (thank you God) and you are free to express your letters to our great Susquehanna Transcript Newspaper. Thank both of you President Trump and Ms. Corrigan for being great people. I would like to also state that their is someone out there that is smarter than you Mr. Eck, or me, or anyone out there that has ever lived; that is God. He created His Universe 13.7 billions years ago, with the tiniest amount of matter, that grew and exploded to create our growing universe!!!

Sincerely,

Bruce Moorhead

Susquehanna, Pa.

Two attributes that know no bounds are ignorance and stupidity. Curiously, of all God's creatures we humans stand alone as the sole possessors of these distinctive qualities. They are allied in meaning, but not synonymous. Sometimes one will serve as well as the other.

Case in point: Consider Pres. Trump's decision to up the troop deployment in Afghanistan from 8,400 to 12,300. The idea is that the additional 3,900 troops will be able to do what 100,000 servicemen---plus another 100,000 Blackwater mercenaries---could not accomplish during the peak involvement years of 2010 to 2012.

Now I ask you: Is that ignorance or stupidity?

This is coupled with a new strategy; no more nation building. The US is going to hold the Afghan's feet to the fire. They must take a more responsible and aggressive role in eliminating terrorists, curtailing corruption and reining in inter-tribal fighting.

Sorry to be cynical but this cries out for it. A horse of a different color is still a horse. And this old nag should have been retired long ago.

“My original instinct was to pull out---and, historically, I like following my instincts,” he said during his Arizona rally last August. “But [it's] different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office.” Too bad. The president should have been true to himself.

Trump, 2011: “Afghanistan is a total disaster. We don't know what we are doing. They are, in addition to everything else, robbing us blind.”

Trump, 2012: “Afghanistan is a complete waste. Time to come home!”

Trump, 2013: “We should leave Afghanistan immediately. No more wasted lives.”

Trump, 2014: “We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Let's get out!”

Instead of following his intuition, Pres. Trump followed the generals, mounted the same warhorse as did the two previous presidents, and continued the war.

There was a time when invading that landlocked nation was justified. “Our war in Afghanistan began in proper fashion. We were attacked on 9/11 and executed a plan to strike back,” said Sen. Rand Paul.

But after killing the mastermind of the Twin Towers attack, Osama bin-Laden, “The mission in Afghanistan has lost its purpose,” said Paul. “It's time to come home now.”

But we're not.

To date, here's what we've managed to do: from 2001 to 2017, 2,297 US soldiers have been killed, 20,049 wounded including 1,500 amputees, and we squandered $1,000,000,000 to kill and wound some 60,000 Afghan civilians and terrorists.

The Afghans, however, don't consider what we call “terrorists” as the bad guys. They are warriors for Islam, martyrs for Allah, fighting to get the foreign occupiers out of their land.

Every time an Afghan is killed by the occupiers he is replaced by a father, son, or brother, with a blood hate for revenge. The US troops are the recruiting arm for the terrorists.

But our accomplishments don't end there.

The Afghans have been reduced to misery and grinding poverty. Its per capita income is $596. Somalia is the only nation on the planet that ranks lower than Afghanistan.

And for this, the US is projected to spend $45 billion in this year alone to fuel the war machine. That's more than enough to double the annual income of Afghanistan's population of 35 million.

The danger that the US faces is not from a dirt-poor nation 7,000 miles distant. It is from illegal migrants crossing our southern border that include murders, gangs, drug cartels, rapists, criminals and terrorists.

Candidate Trump campaigned on border security. He was the only candidate to bring up illegal immigration. And it put him in the White House.

His base is almost as solid as it ever was. Who else could pack the Phoenix Convention Center in triple-digit temperatures with a wildly enthusiastic, turn-away crowd of 30,000 in last month's rally in Arizona?

But some wonder, is Pres. Trump draining the swamp or is the swamp draining him? His inexplicable support for Luther Strange---who is backed by those quintessential swamp creatures Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan---for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, his firing of Steve Bannon, and his continuation of the Afghan war have raised doubts.

Building the wall, ending sanctuary cities, repealing Obamacare, tax reform, and CNN's fake news elicited rousing cheers at the rally. But when he mentioned the troop buildup, there was only silence.

No one voted for this war. No one wanted a re-escalation. Everyone wanted out. Perhaps the president should listen to that silence.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA