Hoping U.S. gets it right in November
By Letter to the Editor on February 10, 2020.
Referencing all the latest news, in all of the media, and also feeling absolutely devastated by the loss of all those wonderful human beings when the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down, I nevertheless cannot help considering that presidential aberration sitting in the Oval Office down in Washington, D.C. as the one ultimately totally responsible for that horrific tragedy. Just when will somebody finally come to the same conclusion and publicly say so. I am sure there are many who feel the same way. Why would I concern myself with what happens just across the border in the U.S.A.? If a mouse is anywhere near an elephant, that mouse had better be concerned with that elephant, especially a rogue elephant. A few News issues ago, there appeared a question asking what we felt about Trump’s impeachment and I was absolutely flabbergasted at the results; a very large percentage of the Medicine Hat News readership didn’t think that Trump ought to have been impeached. Does that mean many of our readers – representing, in my humble opinion, the feelings well beyond our readership – are of the same mind as that dubious majority that voted that (I hesitate here), that, that “Germanic” (yes, he’s ethnically half German, to my great shame ) “crackpot” into the leadership of what was/is supposed to be a staunch bulwark of democracy? A system, according to Winston M. Churchill, that is not much good but certainly better than any other systems the world had ever thought up. If so, then I am seriously afraid of what is liable to be the future of not only the U.S. but also the future of Canada, possibly even the world. When I see that crowd that is seen standing behind Trump and cheering at one of his many loud rallies (often loaded with untruths, falsehoods, exaggerations, vulgarities and very bad English) it literally frightens me. Trump had claimed that at least four embassies were somehow seriously threatened by one of Iran’s top military leaders and that’s why Trump decided that guy had to be assassinated. There isn’t a nation in the world that wouldn’t realize that a retaliatory strike is called for, but that was taken care of by those missiles “sent” into Iraq. But that horrible “mistake” by the Iranian military, that will burn into people’s memory for a long time. The latest U.S. Defense Secretary, a Mark Esper, in mid-January stated he could not find any hard evidence of that threat. Theocracies have never been, in any way, democratically inclined and Iran is a theocracy, ultimately ruled by some religious fanatic. That does not excuse a Trump from assassinating a foreign military figure, whether that man had been in Iran or Iraq, nor from pulling out of that nuclear agreement, nor from imposing those crippling sanctions. At what point will the world realize that the man now in power in the U.S. is leading all of us down a very deadly path? On the other hand, the world is probably already very aware of it, just biding its time. Let’s hope the next U.S. election is a corrective step in the necessary direction. Ted Kohlmetz Medicine Hat 11-10
‘…ultimately totally responsible’? Trump went after Soleimani who was known to be responsible for many attacks and deaths of people. Just days before, his supporters attacked the US embassy in Iraq. Trump didn’t sit around and wait like Clinton and Obama as Americans were slaughtered in Benghazi. I fail to see how one can say he caused the missile to be fired at the airliner. That’s like blaming gun manufacturers for shooting innocent people. By not limiting these rogue nations in their terror, only more attacks would be occurring on western soil.
I sincerely hope the USA DOES get it right, and votes Trump back in for another four years. Unlike the utterly useless Obama, Trump is getting things accomplished, and his increasing approval level is reflectiing that. And I always remember the sage words of my late grandfather…. “A liberal is someone that will make a living marketing gas guzzling vehicles, then mock you for polluting the planet the second you drive one off the lot.”