Terrorism

Dear Editor: Recently a letter writer stated that President Bush said the war on terrorism couldn't be won. He failed to mention the rest of Bush's statement. President Bush stated on the Rush Limbaugh show, " ... this is not a conventional war. It is a different kind of war. We're fighting people who have got a dark ideology who use terrorists, terrorism, as a tool. They're trying to shake our conscience. They're trying to shake our will, and so in the short run the strategy has to be to find them where they lurk.

Dear Editor: Although the Advocate has a strong lean to the right, evidenced by the daily conservative ranting of Charles Krauthammer, Rich Lowry, and Cal Thomas, I must say that Sunday's editorial view is incredibly misleading and clearly attempts to place terrorism as the only deciding factor in November's election. In case the Advocate has not noticed, people from all walks of life are complaining about issues all across the board when it comes to Bush's domestic and foreign policies.

Dear Editor: The Bush administration must have clear doubts about its ability to win the war on terrorism. In a recent interview on NBC, Bush stated, "I don't think you can win it," when asked if he thought the United States could win the war on terror. The spin doctors from the Republican Party of course said, "what he meant was," but that doesn't cut it. Bush may be able to read a speech about winning the war on terrorism but clearly he has doubts about his ability to do so - and with good reason.

Dear Editor: Random acts of violence will never be 100 percent prevented, but terrorism can be checked by constant vigilance, diplomacy and, yes, sometimes by the use of force. Vigilance at home and abroad helps to prevent acts of terror before they occur, diplomacy helps to defray the hatred that spawns terror in the first place and military force helps to wipe out terrorists when they are identified and to destroy the infrastructure that supports them. It also sends to message that we are not just going to sit by and take it. Terrorists thrive in a political environment in which the government passively supports them by turning the other way to their activities.

Dear Editor: I read with sorrow in my heart the news that nine children were killed during a raid on supposed Taliban forces in Hutula, Afghanistan this Saturday. But I suppose that for many of your readers, this is just another example of a supposed "liberal media bias. " Curse those devils at the New York Times and CBS for trying to bring a human face to war! How dare they! Curse them for showing us the real consequences of our actions! When they show us consequences, they aid and abet the enemy!

Dear Editor: Changing presidents will not end terrorism. That is a ludicrous and preposterous assumption. Terrorism has been around almost as long as America has. It is not aimed at any one president. It is aimed at our way of life. If it were because of a president, then don't you think that they would go after the president and not innocent people? And our president should not have waited for the cowards in the United Nations. Something had to be done to protect our way of life as well as the lives of the innocent people that are affected by people such as Saddam Hussein.

There seems to be plenty of hostility and distaste for the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and I’d just like to put things into perspective for a clearer view. Let me start by sharing a few quotations. Bill O’Rilley has stated that leakers are traitors who “should be executed or put in prison for life.” Sarah Palin said Assange should be “targeted like the Taliban.” Finally our own Mitch McConnell has publicly stated that Assange is a “high-tech terrorist.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is the planner responsible for thousands of deaths in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on 9/11. He also beheaded reporter Danny Pearl and put the video on the Web. When KSM was captured in Pakistan, he asked for a lawyer and wanted to be taken to New York. The Obama Administration is granting that wish. Why did KSM want a lawyer, and why did he want to go to New York? Did he expect to find a sympathetic jury in New York? Did he expect the lawyer would get him off?

Dear Editor: The Iraq War is sure to become the most expensive war in history. The cost already has exceeded $300 billion. Kentuckians' share of that cost is now past $1.5 billion. It costs $650 million to wage the war for 3 1/2 days. Such as they are, casualty reports tell us that 3 1/2 days will produce seven U.S. troops killed. Bush's decision to mislead our nation into this insane, horrible war was a huge mistake. Bush badly miscalculated the cost in lives and money. It is ironic that recruitment of terrorists is booming, largely due to Bush's Iraq War. It is especially troubling that Bush does not have the humility and wisdom to admit mistakes.

The people of the Boston area and across our country were outraged over the horrible and senseless deaths of innocent people in the bombings at the Boston Marathon.  It is sad and a shame our country is apparently saturated with such people that seem to be so brainwashed they believe only people like them should be allowed to live. I am glad our president finally woke up and labeled those responsible what they are: terrorists. What took him so long to face up to fact, truth and reality?

It’s said that a broken clock is right twice a day, and that is true for Senator Rand Paul’s opposition to the four-year extension of the USA Patriot Act that President Obama signed last week. Paul, a Republican, found himself in good company as he joined Democrats John Udall and Ron Wyden in fighting an ultimately losing battle to let the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (get it, USA Patriot Act?) of 2001 expire.

April 14, 1986 TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — The government today denied U.S. charges that it has a hand in worldwide political violence and that America itself was “the power of official terrorism.” Allen Brown, Merrill-Lynch, will speak at Wednesday’s luncheon meeting of the Winchester Kiwanis Club at Bud’s Beef ‘n More. Garrett Brown will be program chairman. Army Pvt. 1st Class Glenn C. Howard, son of Glyndon R. and Helen L. Howard of 53 Hiawatha Trail, Winchester, has arrived for duty with the 32nd Army Air Defense Command, West Germany.

Everyone knows someone like Muammar Gaddafi; he’s the guy who always gets a little too liquored up and starts picking fights. Everyone usually ignores him, but occasionally he goes too far and someone will give him a whooping. Usually, guys like that change and mend their ways as they get older, but, well, some like Gaddafi are just idiots who need to be hammered flush to the ground before they can hurt anyone else. Gaddafi has been out of favor with the civilized world for most of his 42-year autocratic rule of Libya.

There seems to be plenty of hostility and distaste for the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and I’d just like to put things into perspective for a clearer view. Let me start by sharing a few quotations. Bill O’Rilley has stated that leakers are traitors who “should be executed or put in prison for life.” Sarah Palin said Assange should be “targeted like the Taliban.” Finally our own Mitch McConnell has publicly stated that Assange is a “high-tech terrorist.

A resident of the Phoenix House Apartments was charged Wednesday with receiving stolen property and unauthorized use of a credit card after making purchases with stolen credit card numbers. Betty Stidham became involved in the nationwide scheme after meeting Nigerian Akeem Adeoti online. Adeoti claimed to be a bank CEO from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., named Kelvin Scott. Adeoti used Stidham to send merchandise and money grams outside of the country to support the efforts of terrorists.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is the planner responsible for thousands of deaths in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on 9/11. He also beheaded reporter Danny Pearl and put the video on the Web. When KSM was captured in Pakistan, he asked for a lawyer and wanted to be taken to New York. The Obama Administration is granting that wish. Why did KSM want a lawyer, and why did he want to go to New York? Did he expect to find a sympathetic jury in New York? Did he expect the lawyer would get him off?

Dear Editor, Liberal thought, represented by Brian Cooney in a recent column, often tries to assign moral equivalency between the Palestinian Hamas terrorists and the democratic nation of Israel. It's ironic that liberals, who clamor for big government, often selectively reject the positions of their own government. The United States government, which keeps up with these things, designates Hamas as a terrorist organization, well, because they are. Despite concessions of territory by Israel, Hamas has fired more than 3,000 rockets into Israel with the sole intention of indiscriminately maiming and killing Israelis.

I may have the best reason yet for Kentucky lawmakers to not raise cigarette taxes: Higher cigarette taxes pay for terrorism. I know. I know. I flinched when I first heard about this connection too. The notion that cigarette smuggling, driven by higher taxes, created a big-enough business to fund terrorists seemed goofy. But the truth here is at least as strange as the fiction. A report released April 29 by New York Rep. Peter King shows how terrorists benefit from high cigarette taxes.