Prolonging pain in Afghanistan

Prolonging pain in Afghanistan

I watched South Carolina Sen ator Lindsay Graham recently on “Meet The Press,” and couldn’t believe what came out of his mouth. He stated that he wants American officials to establish a permanent military presence in Afghanistan. He says that U.S. air bases would be beneficial to the region and that he wants to see the U.S. have an “enduring relationship” with them. Not once did he mention the young men dying over there in that hell hole. Not once did he mention the billions and billions of dollars being wasted on a war that we can’t win. Don’t believe it? Just ask the Russians.

We already have an enduring relationship with them. They supply our drug addicts with all of the heroin they need. But Sen. Graham seems to have left all of this out of his statement. He is willing to dump billions into Afghanistan but he wants to cut programs that help the poor, working poor and elderly.

Sen. Graham is just part of the problem we have in Washington. This new Congress comprised mostly of (help the rich and they will take care of poor) Republicans will definitely go along with Sen. Graham on prolonging the Afghan war forever — and the rest of his stupid ideas as well.

Bud McKelvey, Hermitage, Pa.

The dependable Mr. Sowell

Once again, Thomas Sowell proves that driving the wrong way down a one-way street makes for good public policy. He, like all Republicans, would like to return us to the Good Old Days of anti-union robber barons, company stores, and company housing administered by a cut-throat like Allan Pinkerton.

His Jan. 3 diatribe against “free lunches” is much like a matador waving a red cape to hide the sword of reality while he describes his best way to fix America.

Republicans like Sowell, aided and abetted by misguided Democrats, would have us believe that Social Security is flawed because of the creation of the system, not the fact that its funds have been used to fight illegal wars and other mal-appropriations!

Every citizen should write to their senators and representatives asking for an answer to this question: What would be the state of Social Security now if those funds had been placed in a ‘lock-box’ and were no longer available to fund other nefarious, ill-conceived mal-appropriations by the U.S. Congress?

President Tricky Dick Nixon started the dumbing of America and every president since has contributed to that endeavor in some fashion. Although the goal started in the South, unhappily it has spread all across America.

The problem in paying for America’s infrastructure and programs lies not in raising taxes but in fixing their administration. And, by the way, making people resume paying their fair share of taxes is not a tax increase.

Two solutions could immediately solve problems with the tax code: 1) People making over $200,000 would once again be paying taxes instead of “skating” with tax breaks; 2) We would bar lawyers from running for Congress (just a pipe-dream) so they couldn’t ‘fix’ the tax code for lobbyists.

Fixing America lies not in the solutions proposed by Sowell, but in the application of common sense in the Congress to achieve the government ascribed by Abraham Lincoln, with one change: Government of, for, and by all people.

John Zordich, Youngstown