Parroting administration spin

To the editor:

In his letter, “Giving too much credence to impeachment” in the August 16 issue of The River Reporter, Mr. Saunders is not sharing personal convictions so much as simply parroting this administration’s desperate propaganda—impugning the patriotism of anyone opposing America’s illegal and unwarranted invasion of Iraq.

Twice in his rantings, Saunders speaks of our troops “fighting and dying for our freedom.” This is nothing more than mindless repetition of the administration’s cover for its unjustifiable aggression. That Saunders can still present such a phrase with a straight face at this stage of that disaster is disgraceful. I challenge him to show in what possible way our troops are fighting for our freedoms by invading a volatile country that was never a threat to the United States, an unjustified act that has ignited a civil war and destabilized the entire Middle East, and is so very obviously the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in our history. What our troops are fighting and dying to protect are Cheney’s Halliburton profits and our president’s promise to his energy cronies. Impeachment’s too mild a punishment for their many crimes. (Even “architect” Karl Rove is ducking out early in hopes of avoiding criminal prosecution).

Sure, people like Saunders are more comfortable getting their attitudes from sour clowns like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, rather than wrestling with realities as starkly presented by the national newspaper of record, The New York Times—or as commendably outspoken a local paper as The River Reporter. I count myself fortunate to have both at my elbow, to help swat away the flies (lies) that swarm around this administration’s daily deposit of garbage.

Alfred Lees

An opportunity wasted

To the editor:

The saddest byproduct of the ongoing dispute between Woodstone Companies and the Friends of Toronto has to be the opportunity Woodstone squandered. There is little arguing the positive impact this project has had on the tax base and job creation. There is also little arguing that instead of being a community building project, The Chapin Estate has proved to be a lingering, divisive issue in the community. How things could be different in Bethel if Woodstone would have figured out how to unite, instead of divide, the community.

Room for improvement

To the editor:

I can’t help but think what an improvement it would be to our economy and how we could feed and clothe our own poor people in the United States if we cancelled all phases of the space programs. Then we could give all of our children hospitalization, which they are in dire need of.

We should also automatically give the death sentence to any criminal convicted the second time of a violent crime, with no provisions for appeal and for the sentence to be carried out within 90 days of the conviction.

We should mandate that our illustrious president get all our servicemen out of Iraq before January 1, 2008, not only from the economic standpoint but also to save the lives of our precious soldiers.

We should get rid of the so called “pork barrel” projects that many of our legislators use to get themselves elected and reelected.

Finally, we must start using better judgment of whom we elect, not only on national level but also on the local level.

Philip Mullen