Posted: Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:00 am
The annual cost to the United States of the war in Iraq is more than $100 billion (and worldwide embitterment).
Now the money goes to the U.S. military and U.S. contractors in Iraq. I advocate bringing our military and contractors home and using the money to directly pay Iraqi police and contractors to rebuild their country. Do this over two years and put the billions saved into a trust fund, to be used as follows:
• Pay Iraqi policemen several times the average local wage. His job is dangerous and critical to stability in Iraq. He must be unbiased and protect all Iraqis from terrorists, insugents and criminals. If he fails, he loses his job and is replaced. Will this work? Is it a bribe? Perhaps, but our current path has failed.
• In the past, Iraq was built by Iraqi contractors and citizens. Yes, they hired some foreign help, and they can do that again. Pay Iraqi contractors and citizens to rebuild their country from the trust fund. It is their country, and their effort should provide plenty of incentive. Too much money has gone to U.S. contractors with little or no return. The cost to the United States would be the same (or less) than now.
• The United States, United Nations and Mideast countries all could be involved in managing the trust fund to ensure compliance by the Iraqi government, police and contractors.
The United States has destroyed much of Iraq's infrastructure and stability. We must help Iraq recover.
Charles Curry
Corvallis
Let parents set the curfew for minors
Both Corvallis and Philomath have a mandatory curfew for minors between the ages of 14 and 18. I understand that the reasoning behind this is to make sure that kids are rested for school as well as keeping us out of trouble. This said, I still feel that I must express my dissatisfaction with a law that puts me, a 17-year-old, under virtual house arrest between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m., even during summer vacation.
Government always has to maintain a balance between order and freedom, and while I have nothing against a reasonable amount of order, I believe that this issue should go in the direction of freedom. Curfews for teens should not be a matter decided by city authority. The hours teenagers are allowed to leave their homes should be up to parents and their teens.
Come on, parents. It's time to take back your responsibilities from the "guv'ment," so that you can teach your children some responsibility.
Eric Leman
Philomath
Human breath: Is it source of warming?
In his March 9 letter, Jeffery K. McGonagill stated that he is going to believe the scientists concerning the dialogue on climate change, and I was gratified to read that. Since the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was used by the media to add to the Al Gore-type hysteria, here is a statement from one of the scientists who resigned from that panel last year: "It is beyond me why my colleagues would utilize the media to push an unsupported agenda that recent hurricane activity has been due to global warming. My view is that when people identify themselves as being associated with the IPCC, and then make pronouncements far outside current scientific understandings, that this will harm the credibility of climate change science and will in the longer term diminish our role in public policy."
When I read this, I remembered that the basic cause of global warming is cited as the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere by certain polluting entities, and it occurred to me that there is another "entity" that is a source of carbon dioxide emissions. It is simple human respiration. Since the planet's population is nearing 6.6 billion, how many tons of carbon dioxides are introduced into the atmosphere by humans breathing?
Perhaps the significant recommendation missing from the Kyoto Accords is the proposal that every human on the Earth should stop breathing.
Joseph G. West
Corvallis
Bush setting stage for another war
Well, are you ready for Act II of the Bush administration's farce?
Remember Act I, about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Remember President Bush's speech when they weren't found, and his war rationale became "We attacked because Saddam Hussein wouldn't let our weapons inspectors in?" (Of course, they were already in.) Then, Saddam was a bad guy! (So, kill off thousands of Iraqis, turn some 3 million into refugees and slaughter our kids because Saddam was a bad dude? And how many benevolent Mideast dictators do you know?)
Act II has new words, a new country but the same lies. Now, it's Iran supplying weapons to Iraq! (Of course, we don't sell weapons or aircraft parts to Iran, do we?)
If Iraq is a sovereign free nation, don't they have the right to trade with, make deals with and buy from and sell to anyone? Unless, of course, Iraq is really just an American colony! You can't have it both ways. Saudis are supplying missiles to Iraq, and choppers are crashing. But, a complaint from President Bush could be embarrassing when the Bush family stays at the bin Laden compound again. (You do remember Osama bin Laden's roots, don't you?)
Wake up, folks. You're being lied into attacking yet another country to kill even more innocent people. Do we have to call ourselves stupid twice, or do we put a stop to this madness?
Contact your congressperson now, while ours is still a government of, by, and for - guess who - we, the people!
Marilyn Maurais
Corvallis
Textbook costs, then and now
Some things have not improved with time:
"The scale of payments at the schools is moderate enough, but a large item of expense is in the schoolbooks; they are dear, their use is compulsory, they have to be purchased by the scholars, and they are frequently changed by the Board of Education." That was from a chapter on "Education in Oregon" in Two Years in Oregon (1877) by Wallis Nash (Nash Hall, Nashville).
Louise Marquering
Corvallis