Is Suleimani irreplaceable?
Before we betrayed them, the Kurds had ISIS defeated. But did the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi finish them off? Was taking out Osama bin Laden the last we heard of al-Qaeda?
No, no and no. There’s always somebody to take their place. Assassination is not only against the law by an executive order from Gerald Ford in 1976, but it’s stupid. All you’re going to do is fill your enemy with a terrible resolve, as Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said after Pearl Harbor. Thinking Iran will fear us after this act is naïve. Muslims don’t need much reason to hate the infidel.
Qassim Suleimani was a bad actor, to be sure, and the world is probably better off without him, but who’s going to replace him? It could be better the devil you know. In the war against terrorism, are we turning our armed forces into terrorists? A Navy Seal is pardoned after he knifed an unarmed prisoner to death and posed for a photograph with the corpse.
A professional soldier would’ve wanted the terrorist alive so he could be interrogated. If he had to kill him, he wouldn’t wait around for a photo-op. He’d move on to eliminate another enemy. No matter how heinous his crimes, singling out a foreign official for a hit job may be appropriate for the mafia, but beneath the government of the American people.
Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale
Suleimani responsible for hundreds of U.S. deaths
Fred Malo Jr. says removing a terrorist with a “hit job” is beneath the U.S. government (“Is Suleimani irreplaceable?” Post Independent, Jan. 8). Of course Fred calls Suleimani a “government official,” ignoring the fact that this dirt bag is responsible for hundreds of U.S. deaths.
Fred would have us whimper and whine and play by Marquess of Queensberry rules while our countrymen are murdered.
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle
Where was the due process in Suleimani killing?
I thought today Jan. 8, 2020, was one of the saddest days of my life as an American citizen. I watched our leader on the world stage admit that he ordered the death of a foreign government general. He then went on to name all the atrocities this general had committed or claims he was responsible for crimes committed by his army.
That’s great, another bad guy dead, and how many more million to go? Our government, the greatest power ever, when it resorts to mafia style superiority is showing the world that it’s OK to kill without due process. To me this says even the mighty America can stoop to the lowest form of diplomacy and expect the rest of the world to honor what has been done. This action is going to have its consequences; after all, who is to say let’s go kill another and another without due process. Our government has sustained itself on a certain set of laws, and this act by our president sure seems like it violates due process.
After all, if our country is so powerful, why didn’t they seize him and take him into custody and have a hearing before an international tribunal and follow laws of the courts which are the backbone of our Constitution and our way of life?
I believe this is an injustice to all Americans, because this action makes each and every one of us cold-blooded killers just like them.
Paramroop Khalsa
Carbondale
Cloud remains over entire impeachment process
In the light of all the emerging evidence and unheard voices, presidential obstruction and Mitch McConnell’s power hunger, Speaker Nancy Pelosi should move to reopen the impeachment inquiry. Until the public has the full, truthful account, there will remain a cloud over the entire process.
Robert Porath
Boulder
The 10 worst things Trump did in 2019
I recently read in one of the local papers the 10 best things Trump did in 2019, and I have been waiting to see if someone would list the 10 worst things he did. All of the best things listed had to do with money and the people who have it. Following is a list of the worst things:
Withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear deal.
Withdrawing from the Paris Accord and rolling back climate protections.
Decimating our Departments of State, Interior, Education and fostering a brain drain of scientists from the NIH, EPA and Interior.
Putting more children in cages and separating them from their parents and not keeping records of their whereabouts.
Doing nothing about gun reform and the mass shootings; still in bed with the NRA.
Spreading more hate with his rhetoric of hatred and insults to folks such as John McCain, the Kahn family and other patriots of our country.
Turning a blind eye to the suffering people of Puerto Rico.
Proposing legislation to gut the ACA and eliminate pre-existing conditions.
Blowing up the deficit to the point where our children and grandchildren will be paying the price for decades to come.
Asking the leader of Ukraine to dig up dirt on an opponent in order to be re-elected this year, by holding up monies that Congress authorized.
We now live in two realities: the one made up by Trump of alternate facts (lies) and the truth! As Frank Rich, writer-at-large at NY magazine, says “all cults come to an end, and Trump’s GOP Party is nothing if not a cult”! These are very scary times since we do not have the trust of our once allies. Trump has been successful in alienating them and they now don’t know what is truth and what is lies.
Linda Carr
Eagle
There’s a difference between climate and weather
“How can you still be talking about global warming,” says the climate change denier, “Last winter was colder than Hell, we got plenty of snow, and this year looks like a repeat.”
I usually say Kathy Sabine gives us a five-day forecast that’s only occasionally accurate. Climatologists look at yearly averages over centuries. Their predictions have been a bit optimistic. The climate is warming faster than the climatologists said it would.
The way The Climate Reality Project, founded by former vice-president Al Gore, puts it, “Weather is your mood. Climate is your personality.” Late Show host Stephan Colbert quips, “Global warming isn’t real because I was cold today. Also, great news, world hunger is over because I just ate.”
Yes, Colorado was one-degree F. cooler in 2019 and the drought does appear to be over. I realize this may be hard for you provincials to get your arms around, but as John Donne would put it, Colorado isn’t an island, entire of itself. When we look at the world outside of Colorado, 2019 was the second warmest year on record.
Alaska, remember them? They’re one of the United States and their overall temperatures have increased three-degrees F. in the last 60 years and six-degrees F. in winter. The Inuits are fleeing their homes because of retreating arctic sea ice and eroding shores.
We’ve all had our hearts broken watching Australia’s unique wildlife being burned alive by those unprecedented wildfires. The Aussies are cursed, just as we are, with a national leader who refuses to admit fossil fuels have caused the catastrophe with record temperatures and drought.
Just because you hafta bundle up when you go out doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods on climate change.
Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale
