Costs of Iraq war harming America

The general population of the United States cannot escape the consequences of alloing the country to be taken to war against Iraq.
The cost of this war was supposed to be tens of billions of dollars. Projections by unbiased analysts indicate ultimate costs will be in the trillions. A harbinger of suffering for an especially vulnerable group may be in the headline of the July 4 issue of The Daily Sentinel: “Medicare cut looms!”
Tax cuts and out-of-control spending combine to threaten the security of the United States and the welfare of its people. Afghanistan and Iraq were the first wars in the history of the United States in which taxes were cut. Despite assertions to the contrary, this phenomenon has contributed to the assault on the U.S. Treasury and a bloated national debt.
Attacking Iraq before defeating and stabilizing Afghanistan was a strategic blunder many thoughtful people opposed. The consequences are clear. The war against Iraq, a small, militarily weak nation, has lasted longer than World War II. The Afghanistan operation shows few signs of progress.
A weakening economy, plus the costs of fighting two wars concurrently, leave limited funds to maintain the infrastructure of the country. Highways, bridges, levees, canals, dams and other essential structures are in serious need of repair. Continued neglect appears to be inevitable.
What is the future for certain demographic groups in our country? Would readers agree the elderly, the unemployed, the working poor, children without parents and millions who have no health insurance are among those who will face increased suffering until national resources are not greedily consumed by war and until tax cuts are affordable and equitably distributed among all income groups?
DARIEL CLARK
Grand Junction

Buried news story shows
Bush right on Iraq WMDs
The wee little article on Page 4A of the July 6 edition of The Daily Sentinel turns the history of the last six years upside down and no one notices. After all, it was Page 4.
The last of 550 tons of Saddam Hussein’s uranium yellowcake, used in nuclear-weapons building, leaves Iraq and we don’t even get an, “Oops, we were wrong,” from the “no WMD/Bush lied” crowd?
There have been many instances of chemical artillery shells being found over the time we have been in Iraq, with scant media attention, but this takes the cake. Yellow cake?
So how does this change the scorecard? Joe Wilson, who reported that Saddam had not been trying to procure yellowcake, is a liar. His wife, Valerie Plame, the outed CIA agent who got him the assignment, is most likely complicit. Richard Armitage, who outed her, wanders around free. Scooter Libby, who was uninvolved, gets jail time. President Bush, who was right all along, gets no credit.
Someday, maybe after the first Obama administration makes a mess of things, the real history of events will come out. A white paper will be issued listing in detail Saddam’s weapons programs and his support of terrorism. Bush will be exonerated.
The paper will ask how the obvious was hidden from the American people. The white paper will be duly reported by the press, in a paragraph on Page 4.
DENNIS GORSETT
Grand Junction

Accused rapist was illegal,
not ‘Grand Junction man’
As a “Grand Junction man,” I take offense to the article on the front page of The Daily Sentinel recently that stated in the headline that a “Grand Junction man” is accused of raping a young girl. One has to get the last sentence of the story before it is noted that the suspect is in this country illegally.
The headline would have been correct if it said “Illegal alien allegedly rapes young girl.” If he is in the country illegally, he can’t be described as a resident of Grand Junction or even Colorado or the United States.
At best, it is sloppy journalism and, at worst, is an attitude of the Daily Sentinel. Either way, it displays a disregard for the beliefs and values of most of the people of Grand Junction.
BOB KING
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 9:05 am and is filed under Printed letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.