Time to face the facts about Iraq and failure of the surge
Time to face the facts about Iraq and failure of the surge
EDITOR:
“The surge is working.” Is it really now? Seems to me based upon the news from Iraq as reported in The Vindicator that the reason violence was down in this foolhardy adventure was due to the cease fire ordered by a Muslim cleric and not the influx of more American forces as our Republican “leaders” would have us believe.
Seems to me that when violence suddenly makes a startling comeback as has been the case in recent weeks, these same leaders dismiss it as nothing to be alarmed about. These leaders need to quit blowing smoke at the American people and come to grips with the reality of the situation. It was the cease fire, dummy. Violence may have been down in the Baghdad area, but it flared in other parts of the country.
So how can this cease fire have accomplished anything? We were told the surge of troops was to buy time for the Iraqi government to accomplish some goals but sadly this hasn’t happened. The Iraqi government is a sham entity and will collapse without American presence. I say let it collapse. It’s time we brought U.S. soldiers home and leave that part of the world to the people that live there.
Unhappily the reality of the situation is a great many American soldiers lost their lives in vain due to the foolishness of one man. I know the families of these brave men and women don’t want to hear this said, but it’s time to face the fact that we can’t win and won’t win this war. The surge is not working.
TOM HALL
Lisbon
Married priests aren’t the solution to church’s problem
EDITOR:
At the pope’s April 18 arrival in New York, he was to make some sort of atonement to the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and the following scandal.
He made a remark in passing that he and the upper hierarchy of the Vatican were contemplating allowing priests to marry as a solution to rooting out pedophilia among them. The pope and his entourage, which I assume are highly educated men, must surely realize that pedophilia is much more than a sexual appetite that can be satisfied by marriage. It is an aberration, for heaven’s sake! Pedophilia is never cured, at best it may be controlled some but rarely successful. Therefore, to allow priests to marry is absolutely disastrous and no solution to this problem. There will always be a certain percentage of them who will then marry in order to become priests causing some woman to unknowingly, or knowingly, be duped into marriage with them. This abomination cannot be kept under cover for long and when finally exposed one can only imagine the consequences. I do not pretend to be an authority on the subject of pedophilia. I certainly can offer no solution to the problem except to say that perhaps a more thorough screening of the applicant before being accepted into this wonderful vocation may be the only answer.
Dear Lord, hasn’t the Catholic Church made enough mistakes without adding another one? Allowing priests to marry is a wonderful idea and should have been done long ago, but never for the idea of weeding out pedophilia, as it will never work. And it will also do much damage to the families of these potential priests. Marriage is not the answer.
Although I am not Catholic now I have been married in the Catholic church and educated my children in the Catholic schools.
DOROTHY K. MIGLETS
Youngstown