No WMD
To the Editor:
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The 1,200-member WMD search team is coming home after more than a year of fruitless searching and a billion dollars down the drain. There was not a shred of evidence of WMD. What the heck are we in Iraq for?
President Bush says it makes no difference; he has no regrets, and the war is worth it. But is this war worth it to the nearly 1,400 American families who’ve lost someone in Iraq? I agree the world is better off without Saddam Hussein, but he was only a powerful puppet dictator and not worth the life of a single American.
I saw an evangelical reformer on the news last night, explaining why he voted Republican. He said he made up his mind when he saw a Bush protester holding a sign that read “Bible-Toting Liar.” But the sad fact is, we’ll be inaugurating a Bible-toting liar as president of the United States this week.
Ron Lowe
Nevada City, California
WWGD?
To the Editor:
Kenneth Neill (Viewpoint, January 13th issue) wrote: “Today, as Republicans prepare to celebrate George W. Bush’s reelection with a $40 million inauguration, in the midst of a hellish guerrilla war in Iraq and in the immediate aftermath of a great natural disaster, perhaps they should ask themselves: What would FDR do?”
No! They should ask: What would God do?
Arthur Prince
Memphis
A Rush Fan
To the Editor:
Someone wrote to complain about Rush Limbaugh’s questioning of the accuracy of the death toll from the tsunami (Letters, January 13th issue). But I, for one, am thankful the average American has this thrice-divorced drug addict who was a failure until he discovered he could get rich by distorting facts and lying while posing as a moral beacon. Someone’s got to do it.
Ted Church
Memphis
Down the Rat Hole
To the Editor:
The jingoists, corporate predators, arms merchants, and every variety of benighted fool are selling America down the capitalist/military rat hole. The cheerleaders for this administration are our country’s reputation, its wealth, and our future. We are creating a new generation of adversaries and terrorists who are outraged by our arrogance, greed, and militarism in the Mideast.
When we should be scrambling to build clean, safe, renewable energy technology and put in place a serious conservation program to reduce the amount of cancerous filth and greenhouse gasses we produce, we are doing the opposite. We are mass-producing inefficient, internal-combustion engines and carrying on with an unnecessary war with no end in sight.
President Eisenhower said it best: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
At this time in our history, it is a theft of our security, our breathable air, our future, and our dreams. God help us and guide us from this path of death, decay, and destruction and lead us to the path of life, love, and enlightenment.
Don Johnson
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cowed
To the Editor:
The reaction by the USDA and the U.S. meat industry to the discovery of a third case of Canadian Mad Cow disease clearly places profits before public health. The USDA announced that the U.S. still intends to lift the suspension on the import of Canadian cattle imposed two years ago. The American Meat Institute, which finds Canadian beef more profitable than the domestic product, declared that the discovery is “no cause for concern.”
Mad Cow disease is a degeneration of brain tissue leading to erratic behavior and death. It is transmitted through feeding of infected brain and spinal tissues to other cows. Human consumption of infected beef leads to a deadly dementia that may be confused with Alzheimer’s.
Measures taken by U.S. authorities to protect public health have been grossly inadequate. Only a tiny fraction of cattle slaughtered is tested. The 1997 FDA ban on feeding infected body parts to other cows has lacked adequate enforcement. During slaughter, muscle tissue used in steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, and beef fillings is exposed to bits of brain and spinal-column tissues.
Folks in the beef industry should seek a more socially redeeming career. For the rest of us, it’s not too late for a New Year’s resolution to replace beef in our diet with vegetables, fruits, and grains.
Manny Compton
Memphis
