The need for change
Someone should do a little history checking before comparing post WWII Japan and post war Iraq.
The Japanese government included a “Peace Clause” in their constitution banning any armed forces. They started Labor Unions in 1945 and worked on economic recovery. They instituted their own “New Deal” policies and were declared recovered on April 28, 1952. The US wanted bases there because of its proximity to Eastern USSR and China. They weren’t allowed to maintain an army so allowed this. So, independent in six and a half years.
Iraq was liberated in April 2003. In 2004 Bush campaigned on the ‘fact’ that the Iraqi Army had 250,000 troops in training. By 2014, US date of departure, they had had over 10 years of training. I don’t know about you but 10 years should be enough. And what did they do against the ‘JV’ force ISIS (and believe me ISIS wasn’t even as good as the Iraqi army the US fought)? They dropped their weapons and fled. So, a “cut and run from a stable Iraq” would appear to not have mattered as Iraq was not yet stable and their troops were not yet trained. How long would it have taken to actually train these troops? Twenty years? Thirty? And why did George Bush warn about this “cut and run” scenario? Did he know that the training wasn’t doing any good because of the corruption in the Iraqi government?
What gets me is when Republicans complain about Obama advertizing when the troops would be leaving, as if we would be able to hide the logistics of moving thousands of troops out of the country. And I don’t recall their terrorist activity level changing from before the announcement to after.
So what is happening in Iraq now. The government is trying to rout corruption, with painfully slow progress. The US is still trying to train the Iraqi army, with painfully slow progress. Obama is trying to avoid sending in ground troops because it will allow the Iraq government to no longer worry about its own army performing badly as it will think US forces will always come to the rescue. Can we afford this?
I will vote for Hillary. I did in 2008 because I thought she would bring charges against George Bush’s illegal activities (torture, warrantless searches, illegal imprisonment of foreign national etc.) and I did not think Obama would. We have got to teach Presidents that it is not OK to do illegal things (which I thought we had done with Nixon) or the next one will think he/she can do it too.
Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
Owing an apology
I want to publicly apologize to the Wayne Clark family for the poor treatment I believe they have received from the Hidden Valley Lake Association, of which I am a member.
In my view, the Board of Directors and General Manager have embarrassed me due to their lack of professionalism in the handling of this situation, the termination of Mr. Clark’s employment.
Mr. Clark and his family are still members of this community and in my opinion are being treated poorly by our Directors and Management by continuing, it seems, to punish the family after Mr. Clark’s termination.
These actions are not just unprofessional they are just plain wrong and for all of this, I am sorry.
Bill Wink, Hidden Valley Lake
