War and the military in this country are businesses. They constantly must re-create new "enemies," much like a Hollywood movie. After the cold war ended, they purposely antagonized Arabs and created the militant wing of Islam with their actions, including backing Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank. America has five times the military budget of any other country in the world, and these new phony wars have created a new "need" for further increases. The greatest threat to the American people is the arrogant attitude of its right wing.
However, you must also relate this to our local situation and editorially come out against the "Air and Sea" military show that occurs each May on Fort Lauderdale Beach. It is nothing more than a promotion of the war business and should be stopped. It also interferes in the use of the beach by regular beachgoers.
Dennis Marsella
Fort Lauderdale
Morality, baby, is complex: Capt. Jay Thomas Aubin, a Marine from Waterville, Maine, my home state, died last weekend. His parents live in Machias, my first posting for the Bangor, Maine, Daily News many years ago. On Saturday, we learned that two Australian journalists were killed covering the war in Iraq.
I cannot tell you how sickened Bob Norman's column "Dirty George and the War Pigs" left me. It was a rant against the commander of our military forces during this time of war. Norman seems comfortable assuming the role of "Lord Haw Haw,'' the British traitor who mocked Winston Churchill to boost Nazi morale during World War II. Likewise, after Pearl Harbor, there were those like Norman who sought to undermine national unity with personal attacks on Franklin Roosevelt, the "crippled Jew lover, etc.'' Mr. Norman is in good company.
We can count on him, I expect, to rhetorically spit on our troops when they come home after the war, because attacking one's country during a time when Americans are dying in battle is such an uplifting "moral" statement. And he's such a "moral" person?
John Day
Fort Lauderdale
Bob Norman responds: I agree there is a similarity between World War II and the Iraq war: Like Adolf Hitler, George W. Bush is threatening the world's stability with an unjustiified act of raw aggression. And I would never say a negative word about our brave troops. I just wish their commander in chief were worthy of them.
Harvey, however...: In "Dirty George and the War Pigs," Bob Norman called certain Jews "ultra-Zionists thirsting for Middle Eastern conquest." Yet the facts and truth show Norman to once again lie about these people. How, Bob, could these people be "thirsting for Middle Eastern conquest" when one considers the following?
1. They gave the entire Sinai peninsula back to Egypt when they made peace with Egypt. They offered back Gaza, but the Egyptians turned it down. How smart of Egypt!
2. When peace with Jordan was reached, certain lands Jordan coveted were given back to that nation.
3. Only when Israel was attacked by Arab armies and fought defensive wars against Arab aggressors -- and won those wars -- did Israel "conquer" land. To date, Israel has not annexed those lands. Rather, it waits for a peace partner -- a real peace partner (not the murderous Yasser Arafat) -- with whom to negotiate.
If the so-called "ultra-Zionists" (a term this Jew, who supports a safe, peaceful Israel, has never heard before) were "thirsting for Middle Eastern conquest," as Norman claimed, Israel would have done none of the above.
As Israel has never fought a so-called "Palestinian entity" until the first Intifada began, why does Norman continue to lie to your readers that Israel stole "Palestinian" land?
Harvey Slavin
Hollywood
Construction convertibles? Susan Eastman's March 20 article, "Redeveloping Your Radials," was interesting. Just checked my tires, and the right front has a nail. Not a surprise. A couple of months ago, I took a sheetrock knife out of one of them. I ride motorcycles with people from all over the United States and Europe. It is interesting that in Europe, open vehicles are not allowed. There is no construction debris on the roads like there is here. Florida seems to be a bit worse than most states; immigrants are used to flatbeds and unsecured cargo. Thanks for the article. Hopefully someone will read it and do something about it.
