Re: T&D Aug. 25 editorial on the war: First off the comment made, and I quote, "President Bush and war proponents rejected any comparisons to the U.S. war in Vietnam, where America ultimately ended military involvement and left the South Vietnamese regime to fend for itself. The contention has been that if the United States exits Iraq now in the name of letting the Iraqi government handle security and sort out the mess there, the regime will fall and something worse will follow."
Something worse will follow? If that's the case, then answer me this: What is worse than sending the 20-something and 30-something-year-old soldiers into a war that makes absolutely no sense? What is worse than fighting a war that was based on false pretenses? What is worse than having soldiers fight and die beside guys who are government contractors who work for a company called Blackwater that are getting paid in a week what it takes these soldiers a month to make? It's bad enough that we are in a war -- a war I would consider this generation's Vietnam. Even though there has not been a loss of life as substantial as was lost during that era, just one life lost is still everything to the family that will never see a loved one again.
To compare this Iraq war to Vietnam is just and fair. With the Gulf of Tonkin, it was believed President Lyndon Johnson knowingly lied about the nature of the incident. It was found in a 2005 National Security Agency study that the second attack in the Gulf of Tonkin most likely didn't even occur. The reason Bush and cronies don't want to compare Iraq to Vietnam is because it is nearly the same situation except for one minor difference: Vietnam didn't have any oil.
A unmerited attack on a country like Vietnam to stop the spread of communism was just as idiotic as invading Iraq under the pretense of weapons of mass destruction. No wait, spreading democracy. No wait, they harbor terrorists.
I cannot wait to see what sort of false flag incident will happen between now and November 2008, so that Bush and cronies will start their next endeavor against Iran. False flag incidents work. Just look at Pearl Harbor. Could Roosevelt let the Arizona be bombed so we could enter the Pacific side of World War II? Could the Gulf of Tonkin incident have been embellished so that Johnson could keep the war in Vietnam going? Could the incompetence prior to 9/11 and the events that followed have been the "Pearl Harbor-like Incident" needed to propel us into a war that seemingly made no logical sense?
When we look back at history, we see the intentions of those in power may be clear in hindsight, but at the time their actions are more than questionable. I just fail to see how policing the world in the Middle East is a good idea. If history has taught us anything, it's that it repeats itself, and there isn't too much worse than war.
-- Jason Etheredge, Springfield
T&D Webs site rivals large papers
If the reader is a regular on the Internet, then what I have to say is not news. The Times and Democrat has a great new format that rivals much larger newspapers.
I am a devoted reader of Internet news. There is even one Internet Web site with 593 front pages of newspapers around the world. Nonetheless, I am also interested in local politics, news and other items of local significance. For those of us who wish to be informed about happenings in the Orangeburg area, our best source is The Times and Democrat, in either a print or electronic medium.
I am fully aware that there are mistakes in every news media from the local level to the national level because of the importance to report news in a timely manner. If deadlines are not met, then today's news is nothing but tomorrow's history. However, I believe the journalists and writers at The Times and Democrat are probably on par with other daily news media; that is, no better and no worse. However, I have no accurate way of rating newspapers. Nonetheless, if anyone is interested, the subject is addressed on Google.
Therefore, I commend the great effort that The Times and Democrat has given to keep pace with the rapidly expanding electronic medium that the Internet provides.
-- John W. Baxley, Springfield
Connor off the mark on 'manhood' issue
Having read Bill Connor's "True 'manhood'" letter (T&D, Aug. 27), a reply was imperative. Unfortunately Mr. Connor's aim is off target. Posturing, macho-acting, "chicken hawks," such as George II, his oft-deferred vice president and his Roving "brain" have led us into Iraq and Afghanistan because they lacked sufficient manhood to seek solutions that might involve knowledge, leadership and truthfulness rather than guns, bombs and the lives of young American men and women.
It is not likely that a return to single-gender education will be any more beneficial to society than would a return to the single-race education system that held South Carolina back for so long. I regret that Mr. Connor is in Afghanistan, and I wish for him and his comrades in arms, both men and women, a speedy and safe return.
And while Mr. Connor is deployed in Afghanistan, he might wish to look at the education system in that country, where it appears that young women have not been allowed to attend school or otherwise participate fully in society. Is that the model Mr. Connor proposes and endorses?
No, Mr. Connor, we don't need better training for a warrior class. We need improved training for all classes so that young women and men who are looking for a better life through service to their country aren't sent to fight wars as proxies for elected officials who didn't go to war themselves, but who are willing to send children other than their own to war on false pretense.
-- Jay Bender, Columbia