Why were military commanders dismissed?
To the editor:
I just read your Friday lead story regarding the Libyan debacle, The Washington Post's "CIA responded to attack."
Since the Benghazi attack occurred, the media have tried to imply that any negative comments are "politically slanted." This is not about politics, this is about patriotism, honor and integrity, things sorely lacking in the present administration.
If, as the story suggests, help was sent within 25 minutes, why were calls for help heard some two hours later from the boots on the ground? Why was the order given not once, but two or three times, to stand down our troops that were ready, willing, and able to help? Why were Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaoutte and U.S. Army Gen. Carter Ham relieved of their respective commands for repeatedly requesting permission to engage the enemy?
Why was the public told at first that this attack was in response to an anti-Islamic video? Then the story changed, and has continued to change, with the administration hoping to find a story the public will swallow.
The Libyan incident was badly bungled, and the administration has yet to take responsibility for it. The commander in chief failed, and American lives were lost. He should step down, but knowing that he won't, we the American citizens should fire him today.
To err is human, but not taking responsibility and distorting the truth are unforgivable.
ROBERT SHUE
HENDERSON
The Heavy Hitter
To the editor:
I'm so tired of seeing campaign ads on TV that I'm actually starting to miss Glen Lerner.
MICHAEL BRADY
LAS VEGAS
Obama has delivered
To the editor:
President Obama has delivered on the majority of promises he made. To wit:
- He has created or saved approximately 3 million private-sector jobs through a bailout program that most economists agree was the right thing to do.
- He has delivered a viable, operational immigration program, although Republicans enviously state that it was by executive order. Something needed to be done in an environment of political deadlock, and the president had the courage to do it.
- He has brought us closer to energy independence than any president since the end of the Korean War. We have, in the past four years, produced more oil in the United States than at any time in the past (Futures magazine, October issue).
- Unemployment is dropping and is below the targets set by the president himself at the outset of his term.
- Housing prices have stabilized, according to the American Association of Realtors, in this very newspaper, three weeks ago.
- The president has pushed through a health care reform program that forbids the use of pre-existing conditions to reject coverage, allows people under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' health insurance and not be thrown to the wolves, mandates that health insurers use at least 80 percent of their collected premiums for actual health care or refund those premiums rather than using them to enrich health care executives.
- He stayed out of the State Department's face in the matter of Libya - it was their territory and he trusted them to do their job. Unfortunately, we were not going to send a division of troops or Apache helicopters, or worse, an AC-130 gunship, to shoot up Bengazi - you could see the collateral damage there and the obvious consequences, both there and internationally.
Are there really communists in our government? That political ideology is passe, except among peasants, who would be part of the "47 percent," and fear mongers.
On the other side I see nothing concrete, nothing specific.
Abraham Lincoln's re-election campaign, at a very difficult time in our history, asked "Don't change horses in mid-stream." I, for one, will not accept some ethereal promise from his opponent. I'm staying the course with the guy who has shown solid results.
JIM FOLEY
LAS VEGAS
