Letters to the editor

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Military might move

Editor, The Times:

Just when you think the politicking can't get any worse, up pops George W. Bush with an absolutely harebrained troop redeployment scheme ("Bush plan will return 70,000 troops to U.S.," Times, News, Aug. 17).

While this plan (no doubt thought up by the same bunch who told us Iraq would be a "cakewalk") may win him votes, in the long run it can only undermine our nation's defenses.

Long on rhetoric but short on vision, Bush is only focused on the "War on Terror" (which he is primarily fighting with grossly underpaid National Guard troops and highly overpaid "private contractors"), while neglecting such threats as those posed by North Korea, a Russia teetering on the brink of right-wing totalitarianism, and the soon-to-be superpower of China.

Having made a shambles of U.S. diplomatic policy, this president would now strip our garrisons and pull us further into the same isolationist posture that helped bring about two world wars.

Rather than relying on technological gimmickry as the Bush administration would have us do, it is time for us to invest in "boots on the ground" — a decently paid, professional military trained in both combat and peacekeeping.
— Emily Salisbury Keene, Seattle

Sandbags on the Potomac

George Bush is going to withdraw 70,000 troops from Europe and Asia? What about the NATO Alliance? What about our pledge to protect Europe, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan? What about our very important strategic bases in those regions?

It is so apparent when the president states he is bringing military personnel home for realignment and "to be closer to their families," that he plans to send them to the Middle East. That is likely the only way he will be able to avoid reinstating a draft.

Were not tax breaks for the rich and the insurmountable deficit this administration's policies have incurred destructive enough? This is all-too-transparent and self-serving on the part of the president, and should leave no doubt in the minds of voters that Bush's priority is saving his presidency — not the wellbeing of this great nation and its allies!

As we become a country that seems hell-bent on weakening whatever strengths still exist in its arsenal, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida can just sit back and wait while we destroy ourselves from within!
— Liz Monta, Seattle

About face-off

I was aghast when I heard that John Kerry said he would have supported the Iraqi war resolution even if he knew what he knows now.

The evidence for war was downright false. Pretending that the moral argument is still sufficient to justify his affirmative vote is beyond stupid!

The war is the one thing that can really differentiate Kerry and George Bush because Kerry will not present a clear, convincing economic plan. Kerry's foolish statement now blurs this difference, so now we have regressed to the 2000 election and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

As a liberal, it pains me to say that Kerry is a pathetic candidate and a humiliation for the Democratic Party.
— Nicholas Carlson, Bothell

Past traumatic stress

After glancing over the letters to the editor last Tuesday ("Battleground Puget Sound") — wow! Someone is going to really need therapy Nov. 3 when George Bush is certified the next president.

With President Bush, I feel my children have a better chance to survive the terrorists who want to kill every American.

I don't hate John Kerry, I'm just scared to death of him and his supporters.

Please God, save America from the inside and out.
— Robert Gerbing, Union

Brothers in harms

There's a gentleman in our neighborhood who walks his dog about the same time I walk mine. We sometimes stop and chat, usually about dogs.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a large sign had appeared in his front window. It reads "Anybody But Bush." As a proudly registered Democrat, I felt compelled to ask him about the sign, expecting to find a kindred soul. I was surprised when he told me that he is a lifelong Republican and that he had voted for President Bush in the last election but didn't plan to this time. He said he didn't think John Kerry was any great shakes but that "the policies of the Bush administration scare him to death."

We talk a lot more now, not just about dogs but also about politics and life in general.

In this one small case anyway, Mr. Bush did fulfill a campaign promise to unite and not divide.
— Dave Richards, Bainbridge Island

Anybody's guess

I was for bringing the troops in Korea and Germany home, until I was against it. Yes, John Kerry has done it again, living up to his reputation of being on both sides of every issue. Today, Kerry is criticizing President Bush's plan to withdraw 70,0000 troops from Germany and Korea, calling it a hasty, vaguely stated plan, and one that sends the wrong message to our allies ("Kerry criticizes Bush's plan to realign troops," News, Aug. 19).

Was this the same Kerry who was interviewed by ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Aug. 2 who said, "I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops, not just there (Iraq) but elsewhere in the world, in the Korean peninsula perhaps, in Europe perhaps"?

When the Democrats rallied around the Anybody-but-Bush mantra, that is exactly what they got, an Anybody.
— David Glenn, Renton

Liberal degrees

It has become increasingly apparent in recent years that the Democratic Party has grown ever more intolerant of other people's views.

For years, leftists have tried to paint themselves as the party of inclusion, peace, tolerance and open-mindedness. Recently, nothing could be further from the truth. Peace and love? Hardly.

Don't blame the president for your feelings of hostility. Don't hate the president because you feel it's the "in" thing to do.

Democrats feel a sense of entitlement from being the pioneers of protest movements, rallies and marches in the '60s and '70s. Far be it from for any conservative group to organize any public gatherings voicing political opinions, as the liberal left owns this market.

When it comes to First Amendment rights, it appears that leftists support these rights only when viewpoints are in line with their own.

What has the liberal left in this country become? Before they were just peaceful protesters, albeit misguided in their views. Now, they are just closed-minded haters, and still misguided in their views.
— Mike Brown, Maple Valley

Masters in communication

I have been driving around since March with a "Liberal and Proud of It" bumper sticker. I waited a few weeks to paste it to the rear door because I was nervous about those reactions of hate that some of your letter writers describe. However, I have had no negative responses.

At least twice a week, someone stops me in a parking lot or on the ferry and tells me they love the sticker, or asks me where I got it. On a recent drive to California with my family, numerous people passing us on I-5 flashed me a thumbs-up; and after parking for the night at our motel, I found a note slipped under our windshield saying "Thank you for your bumper sticker — keep the faith — you go!"

The fear and hate-mongers on the fringes command the media's attention and lead us to the false conclusion that they speak for the majority. They do not.

Let us hear about the people who are supporting each other's free speech (and bumper stickers) and working to build communication, not tear it apart.
— Kirstin Eastman, Vashon