Democrats undermining Iraq for political gain

To the editor:

It appears that Sen. Harry Reid, along with many current members of both the House and Senate, did not learn a damn thing from Vietnam. I served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966, and in Washington, D.C., from 1966 to 1968, and the one constant theme running like a river through the capital from around 1967 forward was that the war in Vietnam was lost.

This despite the fact that U.S. military forces did not lose a single battle to either the Vietcong or the North Vietnam army.

The war in Vietnam was lost at home, in the halls of Congress, not on the battlefield. The war in Iraq will also be lost in the halls of the Congress, with the complicit aid of many of the leftist news media elites. The soldiers who made their feelings known in Saturday's edition of the Review-Journal said as much.

It will happen because of the "foot in mouth" problems of those in Congress who are more interested in seeing the policies of President Bush defeated than in seeing the United States win.

To people such as Sen. Reid and others, it is all about politics rather than winning the war on terrorism and supporting the men and women serving in the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Charles O. McVey

HENDERSON

Surrender monkey

To the editor:

Al-Qaida plotters in primitive Afghanistan sent jihadis with box cutters to kill 3,000 Americans, a plot hatched during the Clinton administration.

If oil-rich Iraq falls to al-Qaida and Sunni jihadis, next time they'll bring more than box cutters. By fighting al-Qaida where they have access to resources that pose the gravest threat, President Bush has so far stopped further attacks on America, a fact that should block out the sun in the Iraq war debate.

A wounded Navy SEAL recently told Sen. John McCain that we are winning in Iraq, but they need the home front's patience. A Marine corporal in Iraq just e-mailed similar sentiments, which will hopefully be publicized.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Searchlight surrender monkey, would run from losses lighter than the six-month Guadalcanal campaign. Sen. Reid voted for war, then opposed it, voted to confirm Gen. David Petraeus as Iraq commander, then pre-emptively called his surge dead on arrival.

In Sen. Reid's April 12 news conference, covered by Congressional Quarterly, he gave away the game: "We are going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war."

LYNN MUZZY

MINDEN

Not interested

To the editor:

I'm not surprised that Las Vegas is No. 1 in auto thefts. I had an experience with our law enforcement people about a stolen car.

My girlfriend accidentally went to bed with her garage door open and the keys in her Cadillac. It happened that the entry gate to her gated community was broken and open. Her car was stolen and gone for about a month. To their credit, the police found the car and returned it to her.

However, all of her stuff from her car was missing, and the trunk contained, among other things:

-- A handwritten phone book with more than 100 entries, some with addresses. It even included an entry labeled "Crack House."

-- Drug paraphernalia.

-- A digital camera. On it were pictures of a couple standing beside the stolen car, their apartment (inside and out), their dog and various other people.

-- About 20 cell phones and 15 sets of car keys.

-- The pink slip to a car, bank account statements, a notarized bill of sale of a car, a blank check and a mortgage contract.

-- A Nevada temporary license plate.

-- A tool box full of car tools.

-- About 100 CDs, a Palm Pilot, mini laptop computer and some car radios.

So, I organized the stuff, made some copies and put it all in a box. I figured that there was enough here to not only find the thieves, but get into their entire network.

Wrong.

I made an appointment with the police detective in charge of car theft investigations and went down to see him. While I was waiting in the outside room, a couple of employees chatted with each other about personal things for the entire half hour that I was there. When the detective came out, I showed him the list and started going over the things in the box. He didn't seem interested.

After about four things, he stated that he didn't have time to go over any more of them and to just leave the box.

"We have a lot of cars stolen," he said.

I left my phone number and asked him to call me and tell me how it turned out. It's been more than two years now, and I haven't heard a thing.

Charles Gould

LAS VEGAS