Letters - Wednesday

TORTURED LOGIC?

Bush administration echoes earlier authoritarian regime

Rusty Baker said it correctly: What direction are we going (“This time, government has gone too far,” Letters, Nov. 15)?

Like many people my age who are World War II veterans, I remember what we were opposed to at the time. The regime in Germany used storm troopers to break into the homes and businesses of those opposed to their ideas, and to arrest the undesirables — Jews, gypsies, the mentally ill, enemies of the state and whomever the Nazis decided fit into that category. The secret police could tap telephones, ask people to spy on their neighbors and report any unusual activity. Is history repeating itself?

Our Constitution is supposed to be for all the people of this great country of ours, but is it? When an American citizen can be labeled an enemy combatant and stripped of his constitutional rights, then none of us is safe, as any one of us could be declared an enemy combatant.

If our Constitution doesn’t stand for all of us, it stands for none of us. If it doesn’t stand for any of us, then we are in mortal danger of losing it, and becoming subject to the will of Congress and the president, and any other authority that disagrees with us. Can we return to the great and moral country we once were, or do we lose it all to expediency?

There may be people who do not regard waterboarding as torture. Anyone who regards it as a frivolous exercise should try it out. When they are done, they can have their say.

Rusty Baker, I salute you. Where is this country going? I’m wondering, too.

Bob Mikulich

Monument

Waterboarding technique uncomfortable, not torture

Rusty Baker is badly confused.

The United States government does not sponsor torture, and Baker needs to get a better grasp on reality.

Waterboarding is not torture. We use it in some of our military training classes. No, it is not fun, but it is not supposed to be fun. We are not playing games.

Yes, there are some politicians that think that anything more than saying “good morning” is torture.

He thinks it is terrible that we tap the phones of the terrorists. I am glad we do that, and encourage our government to continue.

He thinks we have suspended the right of the terrorist to have counsel when captured on the battlefield. Baker should think back to his Vietnam days and ask himself if he read the Miranda rights and provided legal counsel to the enemies who were shooting at him.

Donald W. Erickson

Colorado Springs

INFLATIONARY WARS

Inflation a dishonest way to pay costs of adventurism

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has it backward, although I suspect he knows better (“High oil costs, low dollar value drive inflation,” The Gazette, Nov. 9). When hundreds of billions of dollars are created out of nothing in order to finance endless wars, then added to the existing money supply, thereby “inflating” it, the purchasing power of both the new and existing dollars will decrease. It will the require more of those cheapened dollars to purchase the same amount — not only of oil, but also of everything else.

No modern day politician is going to admit to imposing new taxes to pay for perpetual warfare. Such a peace-loving nation as ours would not stand for it. Apparently calling it inflation and using twisted reasoning to explain it is intended to make it more palatable.

The hidden tax called inflation is upon us, and even our grandchildren will be paying for this one.

Anthony Longo

Colorado Springs

COUNTY FURLOUGHS

Why weren’t consultants hired to study the problem?

Gazette columnist Barry Noreen wrote, “If you’re going to furlough anyone, start at the top” (Nov. 14, The Gazette). Hasn’t he thought this out?

What they need to do is get a few highpriced consultants from out of state and let them look at the situation for months, while they spend money the county doesn’t have and recommend that they get an expensive person who can tell them who they should furlough.

Now, isn’t that the way to do things — cover your job while you get rid of the little guy?

Thomas Martin

Woodland Park

DISCONNECTED

Iraq not responsible for 9/11 attacks

The Gazette published a letter on Nov. 15 that seemed very concerned with the idea of consequences. In “Young people’s politics spring from postmodernism,” Haley Smith claimed that the “efforts of the Bush administration in Iraq” are a direct consequence of “Events such as 9/11 and other terrorist attacks.”

The general understanding of a consequence is that it has some logical connection to the original act. Invading a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11 is not a natural or desirable consequence of that event.

Nicholas Solter

Colorado Springs

ILLITERACY RULES!

Educators, students ignore very public misspelling

I drive by Doherty High School daily. On both sides of its prominent, lighted sign, the public is told the “D-11 oversite committee” will be meeting there. That sign has been there a long time.

I guess the committee’s “oversite” job is to overlook illiteracy, including misspelled words. Or maybe this sign was itself just an oversight.

Don’t wurry about the stewdenz, tho. There fucher is brite so long as thay dont have to right stuff. And if your stil not sher, blame tax limits. Everybuddy nose speling wurds rite costs extra.

Comishuner Douglas Bruce

Colorado Springs