Letter
to the Editor: Save Bush
Regarding
Karl Kalman's indict ment of President Bush,
he and those who indict Bush for Afghanistan
and Iraq should remember that Bush went
to action with a strong support of the American
people and Congress. So, indicting him means
indicting a lot of the population at large.
Karl claims President Bush doesn't care
about Hussein's massacre of Iraqis, yet
by criticizing Bush's action Karl implies
that Bush should have left him in power.
Is there anything Bush could possibly have
done right?
Karl
offers no evidence that we are improperly
"taking" Iraqi oil. By all accounts
we pay for all the oil we get from all our
suppliers, and it is these purchases that
the Senate wants to use to repay U.S. aid.
Have I missed the outcry about United States
stealing oil? I certainly haven't been getting
any free gas at the pump lately. Does Karl
have some facts to support his claim?
Karl
has decided that Afghanistan is a "useless
desert land," yet in the same thought
indicts Republicans and Bush for trying
to rebuild it. Karl, if it is useless, are
you suggesting we should not rebuild it?
That would put you in the "uncaring"
position, Karl, not Republicans. You may
be displeased with how the rebuilding is
being carried out, but no one who care about
humanity could suggest it should not be
done. If some people make profit on the
rebuilding, that is no sin. Indeed, one
might argue everything should be given free
because someone else needs it.
Are
you willing to go over there and rebuild
Afghanistan for free, Karl? You'd have to
pay me a lot to go there, and those people
probably are earning every penny. If the
profit is exorbitant and corruption is occurring,
I agree that would deserve criticism, but
Karl does not offer any evidence of that.
And, sadly, Karl's emotional condemnation
of his perceived "Republican"
actions against the
Taliban
and Hussein also would imply his support
for a denial of justice to the 3,000 Americans
brutally killed on Sept. 11. If it were
his family member that had to jump out of
a 100-story window, perhaps Karl would see
the importance of us taking action to prevent
terrorism now.
Reasonable
people can disagree on how action should
be taken, but by indicting our actions as
a whole in those cases Karl seems to imply
that the Taliban and Hussein ought still
be in power today. Maybe if Clinton had
taken action when he had a chance, we wouldn't
have to deal with this now; it is foolish
to believe that we can ignore growing global
threats and pretend they will not affect
us. It is easy to criticize leadership but
hard to make the important decisions. Had
Karl been president at the time, I wonder
if he would have valued the lives of Iraqi
civilians more than the American civilians
relying upon him to keep them safe.
We
know Bush valued Americans more and is taking
action accordingly. Casualties have been
amazingly minimal throughout this war; could
Karl's vitriolic diatribe possibly be a
manifestation of his Democratic Party affiliation?
Karl, if you care about humanity so much
why are you not upset at Clinton for knowingly
leaving Hussein free to massacre Iraqi civilians
for eight years?
Karl
complains that business school ignores environmental
issues and abortion. Equally shocking, anatomy
is completely absent from political science
curriculum! Obviously, Karl's criticisms
are unsupported and unwarranted. We should
be proud of the wide array of courses available
here at Cal State Long Beach, and we should
equally be proud of our political leaders
overall who have done a very good job under
difficult circumstances, even if we disagree
on some policies.
-- Ed Ober,
political science major
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