“ … “ - We Americans on the plight of Iraq’s displaced, today Dear citizens, a few years ago, as I was working to get our military forces out of Iraq, I asked a very dear and very brilliant friend to review an essay I had just written. She kindly applauded my efforts at describing the imperative of withdrawal before chiding me mildly for ignoring the Iraqi people and all humanitarian concerns. As you can ... Read More
“The vast majority of American Muslims are law-abiding, upstanding citizens who vehemently shun the violence embraced by the radical and dangerous few. In many ways, American Muslims have the most to lose when extremists carry out their warped plans, and they suffer most when they are unjustly lumped in with the radicals." - Washington Post editorial “An enemy within: Combating the spread of homegrown extremism” (December 16, 2009) Dear citizens, The Washington Post editorial cited above begins with ... Read More
Dear citizens, I had not planned to write today or especially about today. As a veteran, to me it can seem, well, unseemly, to write about myself and my comrades in arms. But, events conspire as you well know, and some unexpected free time and a comment by a friend have convinced me that writing today is proper. However, I will not be writing about veterans; I will write about you. I think I should start by pointing out that this day ... Read More
“And now we can see the value of the device of the Committee of the Whole. If this had been the final vote on proportional representation, many if not most of the small-state delegates would have walked out of the Convention. They did not because the Convention was still sitting as the Committee of the Whole, and the motions favoring proportional representation in both houses of Congress, which had just passed, were ... Read More
“The society must be purified of these people.” - Holocaust denier and perhaps reelected Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (“Iranian Candidate Exhorts Protestors,” Washington Post, June 15, 2009) Dear citizens, we have to accept that the Washington Post may have erred in some degree in its translation of the remarks by the current and perhaps future Iranian President. However, a leader who calls for the eradication of Israel and who pretends that the destruction of the Jewish minority in Nazi-controlled areas simply never happened is ... Read More
Looking out my window, I can see clearly the Air Force Memorial. It looms over the Pentagon, bordering the vast expanse of sacrifice-filled Arlington National Cemetery. I returned to this area as the memorial was being constructed and watched its completion in rapt fascination. I passed by almost daily on a bus that runs from my home to the Pentagon terminal, coming within a hundred yards or so of the base of the arcs that soar overhead. I had passed countless times ... Read More
“The devil came here yesterday. He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world. In this very spot it smells like sulfur still.” - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, describing then-United States President George W. Bush to the United Nations General Assembly, September 20, 2006 (MSNBC.com, “Venezuela’s Chavez calls Bush ‘the devil,’ September 20, 2006) Dear citizens, how do you perceive these three people? What do you make of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? I suppose you ... Read More
A heartless cold has settled over this ground. I am wearing a shirt, a sweater, and have the collar of my field jacket turned up against the wind. Yet, when I am inactive in body or mind for more than a moment, the oppressive cold attacks me. I am forced to be inactive repeatedly, and the cold seems each time to reach inside my protections and directly squeeze my heart. Perhaps you felt it, too. The vista before me is one of small ... Read More
“After she finished speaking, I couldn’t resist the temptation to ask a question. ‘You mentioned Mossadegh,’ I said. ‘What do you remember, or what can you tell us, about the coup against him?’ She immediately became agitated and animated. “‘Why did you Americans do that terrible thing?’ she cried out. ‘We always loved America. To us, America was the great country, the perfect country, the country that helped us while other countries were exploiting us. But after that moment, no one in Iran ... Read More
“Murder thus leads to murder, and we will continue to live in terror either because we resign ourselves to it or because we seek to eliminate it by means that replace one form of terror with another.” - Albert Camus, “Neither Victims nor Executioners: Saving Bodies,” Combat, November 20, 1946 Dear citizens, my philosophy begins from one point: Killing is wrong. I do not believe for a moment, however, that killing is avoidable. I have supported actions during my Air Force career that took lives. ... Read More
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