Before casting your vote, think about its true value



Before casting your vote,think about its true value
EDITOR:
If you have children approaching military draft age, as I do, then you may be acutely aware the next step in meeting manpower needs is a military draft. Our military is stretched so thin that the Reserves and National Guard make up 40 percent of our forces in Iraq. Using our civilian army allows the military an opportunity to give much-needed rest to active-duty personnel, some having served well over a year in combat situations. Extended tours of duty and calling up civilians into combat rolls happen when there is a manpower shortage.
The next draft will be unlike the Vietnam War daft. There will be no National Guard or Reserve unit where the well-connected can sit out the conflict, as George Bush did. There will be no five different deferments given because war was "not one of my top priorities," as Dick Cheney received. Bush and Cheney know the loopholes and will close them, for the most part.
A Bush/Cheney win in November, even by the slimmest of margins, will be taken by them as a mandate to continue pre-emptive strikes on suspected enemies. Our government has yet to name the next target, but has given a few hints. There are so many that qualify under the president's criteria -- North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba, to name a few.
Every Iraqi civilian we kill creates more terrorists. We have given a thousand American lives and billions upon tens of billions of dollars in Iraq -- all gone forever.
We have found no weapons of mass destruction, no eminent threat to the United States, no terrorist links as we were told existed when we went to war. The mistake was blamed on "faulty intelligence."
When you spend so much to go to war, you must be sure. You must be absolutely certain, and obviously we were not! Our reasons for going to war with Iraq have changed as we find out how much our intelligence was wrong. Simply put, Mr. Bush lacked intelligence in his decision to go to war with Iraq.
I notice hat Bush political ads all seem to start out, "John Kerry ..." and then something negative is said. I question why the Bush campaign does not mention some of the wonderful things our president has accomplished with his four years in office. I hope to hear, before the elections, about possible plans for pre-emptive strikes at suspected "axis of evil" countries so I might fully understand the value of my vote -- if it is counted.
KEN DROMBOSKY
Boardman
Coming to a store near you: light bulbs made in the USA
EDITOR:
Ohio has lost over 200,000 jobs in the last four years. The unabated trend of corporate America to seek out and exploit cheaper labor markets has left those of us who still have a job feeling like we are sitting under a veritable Sword of Damocles.
That is why kudos are in order for the Niles Home Depot that will soon be stocking their shelves with products made right here in Niles and assembled in Warren.
Those of us who work for the General Electric Niles/Mahoning Glass plant are encouraged by this trend reversal that has work previously done in Mexico returning to the Valley. From a manufacturing point of view it is rare to see product lines once lost to foreign labor markets return.
As the Par-38 and Par-20 floodlights make their way back home, we are now looking to the future with ever increasing confidence.
ED HAVAICH
Mineral Ridge
X The letter was also signed by Gail Biamonte and Dennis Hayda, all members of UE Local 751.

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