Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Resolve wasn't lacking

It was with great dismay that I picked up The Register-Guard's July 28 Commentary section, only to be confronted with the headline, in huge block letters, "The Vietnam myth."

In this article, Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and Vietnam veteran, makes the tired argument that the U.S. could have won in Vietnam if only the liberal press and the protestors hadn't undermined our resolve and we had just "stayed the course." American soldiers are courageous, always have been, but that is not the point. Winning is not always the point. Why were we there?

Vietnam was a conflict, like many others following World War II, to assert independence and throw off colonialist power. Franklin Roosevelt had warned the French that it was time for them to end their reign over Southeast Asia. In 1956 it was the United States and South Vietnam that refused to honor the Geneva agreement and allow free elections. This conflict never had a chance of success for us because the South Vietnamese government was totally corrupt and never had the support of its own people. The problem wasn't a lack of resolve, we had way too much resolve.

This was the longest running war in American history, with over 58,000 American casualties, 2 million Vietnamese dead and 10 percent of the country defoliated. We dropped more tonnage of bombs there than in all our other conflicts combined. How long would West have had this go on and to what end?

GLENN CASHEL Eugene

It's a free air show

I'd like to respond to Jim Krowka (letters, July 27) regarding WingOver Aerobatics.

Good grief! Don't Krowka or Nena Lovinger (letters, July 21) have anything better to do than complain about others? If the planes were buzzing their rooftops eight to 10 hours a day, I could see their reasoning - but they aren't.

I hear the planes here in Jasper occasionally, and only if I am outside. When I do, what a treat it is to watch them - a free air show! Remember, to quote John Lubbock: "What we see depends mainly on what we look for."

And all this nonsense about "invading your space and well-being, peace, health and productivity"- give me a break. And as the the suggestion that "recreational impulses should be taken to remote places" - why don't the complainers take themselves to a remote place, like another planet? Then maybe they won't be so bothered by others who are enjoying life.

LYN WINEGAR Jasper

Greet friendly visitors

The Register-Guard performed an important public service in announcing the visit of Dr. Steven Greer to Eugene to discuss his Disclosure Project. More than 500 people attended the one-night session at the Eugene Hilton. It was surprising that there was no follow up article covering this well-attended lecture.

A second public program on this issue will take place at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 11 in the Eugene Water & Electric Board community room. David A. Caruso will speak on "The Extraterrestrial Situation - What is Really Going On."

The problem of space aliens has three important dimensions. The first is the recognition of the fact that they are here. This is Greer's principal theme in presenting personal testimony from people in the military and from industry who have experienced aliens and their technology. Massive evidence in the form of photographs, video tapes and radar records has been piling up since the beginning of World War II.

The second important aspect of the human-alien relationship on planet Earth has been the capture of valuable alien technology by the American military. Present-day military technology could revolutionize public energy production and transportation. Imagine home power units, flying cars and aircraft carrying 1,000 passengers. Current technology could save the environment of the planet. It would probably also mean the end of the oil industry as we know it.

The third, and most dangerous, aspect of the current human-alien relationship is that the military forces of most countries, but especially the United States, make a policy to attempting to shoot down the UFOs because they invade Earth air space. This war-making policy should end now and be replaced by an effort to establish peace and friendship with the visitors.

JACK RADABAUGH Eugene

Uproot tansy weed

Now is the critical time to pull the tansy weed, poisonous to the liver of browsing animals.

Tansy is announcing its pasture and roadside presence now by a round head of many individual yellow blooms. Pull it out by the roots and carry it away - don't leave it where you pull it, because the seeds will still finish maturing and will blow away. But if you find several brown and yellow striped caterpillars on a plant, leave that plant in place and check on it again at county fair time. Those caterpillars may have eaten leaves and seed flowers by then.

Tansy is their delicacy and is the only source of food for these larvae of the small, black cinnabar moth, with some red on its wings. Cinnabar caterpillars are in very short supply this year, having eaten themselves out of house and home a few years ago. But the poison tansy has sprung back strong this season, with the caterpillars in short supply. So just now it is up to you and me to protect the horses, cattle, sheep and wild deer by pulling the roadside and pasture tansy out by the roots.

EDWARD FADELEY Creswell

Bush disasters repeat

When will the American voters begin to see the repeat disasters of Bush 1 and Bush 2?

First the war that ends without a clear-cut victory, and then the major downturn of economy - isn't it amazing how a huge surplus that was building for years can just vanish and has become a huge deficit, sort of like the Enron story?

HERB KIEKLAK Eugene

Abuse charges ruinous 

My brother lived in a small trailer court in Eugene. Over the years, many children found refuge in his home for one reason or another. Their parents would leave for an hour or a day and let them wander. My brother felt concern for these children - he let them out of the weather and fed them. He assumed that as long as he wasn't doing anything wrong, he couldn't get in any trouble.

He was wrong. If you know of youngsters who roam unsupervised, please report the child's parents for neglect. I wish to God I had. When a child makes even vague allegations of sexual abuse, authorities concentrate on anything that will build their case for a conviction of their suspect. Anything that doesn't fit the answer frequently gets discarded. When there is no physical evidence and the event took place three years ago, the child is put under great pressure to remember what happened.

In most cases of this nature, once an allegation has been made, there is a flurry of similar charges as others come forward. Not this time. Some children, young adults now, came from other states to testify on my brother's behalf. When the state arrests somebody, it wants to secure a conviction so it won't be sued for false arrest. The arrestee loses his job and is given a court-appointed attorney whose main goal is to plea bargain the case so he can get back to where the money is.

Measure 11 gives an accused man the dubious choice of copping a plea for a five-year sentence or rolling the dice on a jury and the word of a child, risking a 30-year sentence for the chance of walking away. Even if he walks away, he will always be thought to have beaten the rap, not to have been found innocent.

Something is seriously wrong with our legal system.

LESLIE PARCHEN Eugene

Sharon defends Israel

Hitler died sniveling in a Berlin bunker, but those Nazis who treasure his memory would be thrilled to hear one of his favorite lies repeated by Nadia Sindi (letters, July 27), the lie of a vast Jewish conspiracy.

Sindi claims that Israel controls the United States and the "Jewish vote" will bring America to its knees. Unlike any Arabs, the Israelis elect their leaders in a democratic way. They elected Ariel Sharon as prime minister in part because a real war criminal and gangster, Yasser Arafat, spat in the face of the United States when President Clinton and then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered a peace settlement that would have given Palestinians virtually everything they asked for - except the extermination of the Jews and the annihilation of Israel. Arafat then started the second Intifada and unleashed his gangs of murderers on Israeli citizens while his Muslim soulmates attacked the United States, killing thousands of U.S. citizens.

There is no negotiating with a political group whose key demand is to kill all Jews or drive them from their homeland, where they are an indigenous people who long predate Muslims in the area. The people of Israel, not the United States, choose the leader of Israel, and they chose a man who will defend Israel against the continuation of the Holocaust by fascist killers of whatever religion.

America is a nation among the nations, not the rulers of the world. We should help our friends and punish our enemies, just as every other nation does. After Sept. 11, I think most Americans know who our real enemy is.

GEOFF COOPER Eugene

Taxing smokers unfair

Does the state of Oregon advocate smoking, or does it advocate non-smoking? Consider that our governor, a self-proclaimed supporter of education, has based the educational needs of the children of Oregon on the backs of people who are addicted to nicotine - which, scientific studies show, is more addictive than heroin.

Why is it that people we elect chose again to slam-dunk the most vulnerable segment of our population by subjecting smokers to even more unfair taxes?

In my view, you are either for smoking or against it - you can't be both. What stand has Oregon taken? On the one hand the state contributes to anti-smoking ads, and on the other we finance our children's education on the backs of smokers. This funds the misdeeds of politicians who can't seem to figure out how to balance a budget - the same bunch that expects all taxpayers to pick up the slack so that they can have a healthy retirement fund and wage hikes.

It becomes clear that our representatives care only about our votes and contributions at election time. Maybe the pork-and-beans rednecks of Oregon should band together to show these politicians how to stretch a dollar - we've been doing it for years. And has anyone figured out that people, regular people, live in Oregon, and that it's not a giant park created for the pleasure of those who expect to continue this burden of taxation without representation?

PAT JOHNSON Noti

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