U.N. Military
Dear Editor: When I read that the new American Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, will be “taking names,” I can only wonder: and who, then, is going to then “kick ass”?
Then I can only wonder a bit more: is this why we need to replenish, up-size/-grade/-date and, above all, up-budget our “sadly depleted” military of some 1.3 million active duty personnel, more than 800,000 Reserve and National Guard, and 742,000 civilian employees (with an unknown number of civilian contractors) scattered on more than 700 bases spread across close to 70 nations all over the world, with a budget of $600+ billion (that’s $600,000,000,000+) that exceeds the total amount of money spent on national defense by the next seven most prolific spenders: China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan? Is THIS why?
From that, I have to further wonder: will de-depleting our military thus enable us to – as President Trump promised at the foot of the Capitol on January 20 – “completely exterminate ISIS, etc. from the face of the earth”? But, more importantly: are there other, newer, bigger, and badder (and thus better) “threats” looming out there just over that same horizon where, as he put it in his Inaugural Address, all the “wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated”? And that we need to start getting ready for them? Now? Before it’s too late?
But Ambassador Haley’s opening gambit at the U.N. certainly clarified one thing that I’ve been wondering about concerning Mr. Trump’s speech: when he said that “we will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first (emphasis added),” does that include all those other nations, as well, or is it just about U.S. and our interests?
Thank you, Madame Ambassador, for making that absolutely crystalline.
JG Moebus, Master Sergeant,
US Army (Retired)
Veterans Against War
(Sitka Platoon)
Fireworks
Dear Editor: I want to take this opportunity to thank whomever it was that set off the fireworks in the 600 block of Lake Street at a quarter to 2 this morning. Your selfless acts of kindness made it much easier for me to wake fully, to better contemplate my downward spiral of living with ALS. I know my wife who has a big day planned today, also loved being woken up.
I’m also guessing that my neighbors who both get up early on Monday to head off to their jobs helping their fellow humans also enjoyed the beautiful fireworks. And, I’m guessing the young mother who lives next door loved having her toddler woken up. After all, anyone who has ever lived with a baby or toddler knows how much young children loved to be woken up. Plus, surely the young man who will be heading off to high school in the morning needed less sleep. Everyone who has ever been around a high school kid knows they get way too much sleep anyway.
I also know if my little dog could talk she would express how extra thankful she is for being scared awake at a quarter of 2 this morning.
You’re such a kind, thoughtful and considerate neighbor that an hour after your kind act I felt compelled to get up out of bed and write this thank you letter.
Marcel LaPerriere, Sitka
