‘Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute’
To the editor:
The U.S. Marines were created to fight the Barbary Pirates off the coast of Tripoli. The slogan of that time was "millions for defense, not one cent for tribute."
These pirates were capturing and looting our merchant ships and killing the crews. We took a strong stand, landed troops there and killed every pirate we could find. The attacks stopped.
Fast forward to the past four years. Time after time, our ships and those of other nations have been boarded and held for ransom. Innocent U.S. citizens have been killed. Why aren't we hitting their bases and killing the bad guys?
Our commander in chief holds back our armed forces from doing anything about this ongoing disaster. It doesn't take military genius to figure out that we need to send in Navy SEAL teams underwater to hit every captured ship in Somalia's bays, all at the same time. We destroy their boats, mother ships and all their supplies and weapons. Tell the rest the next time they take one of our ships, we call in air strikes and flatten the whole town.
What's wrong with our leaders? No guts? We are the laughing stock of the world's bad guys.
Clark Coleman
Las Vegas
Adult conversations
To the editor:
When the most powerful legislator in the land spoke to the Nevada Legislature last week, the newspaper of record chose to ignore his powerful arguments for policies that would reverse our state's dismal economic condition: appropriate funding for education, economic diversification focused on renewable energy and the end of term limits, which cause us to lose some of our most effective leaders just as they gain experience and influence.
Irresponsibly, the Review-Journal plastered the front page with photos of prostitutes and devoted nearly a page of print to Sen. Harry Reid's call to ban legal brothels -- and a few paragraphs to term limits. The important issues, which the Review-Journal's editorial page opposes, were not mentioned.
Even the newspaper's so-called liberal analysts, John L. Smith and Steve Sebelius, echoed the blather about banning legal prostitution in rural counties.
Is it possible this state is not capable of having "an adult conversation" about any significant political issue?
Beneth B. Morrow
Las Vegas
Energy disaster
To the editor:
We watch impotently the crises in various Arab countries that have so far increased the price of a barrel of petroleum to nearly $100, with more increases on the way. In the meantime, our government and its environmental czars have stopped offshore drilling and prevented the exploration of vast areas of the country, using the 200 million gallon spill in the Gulf as an excuse.
Is it not strange that, while petroleum is measured in barrels, that spill is stated repeatedly in gallons? A spill of less than 5 million barrels sounds less dangerous, doesn't it? And in the meantime, we are spending multiple billions of dollars in the vain search of "renewable" energies, all of them (wind, solar, ethanol) ultra-expensive, unreliable and environmentally destructive.
Would somebody please explain that atrocity to our people? What is their final aim?
Marc Jeric
Las Vegas
