June 11, 2009 10:20 pm
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I want to comment on Allen Shirley’s latest rant (Globe, May 27). His verbiage can’t disguise the plain truth. Shirley mentions people “conveniently forgetting” while he ignores the fact that George W. Bush engaged the United States in aggression against a foreign country for specious reasons; costing thousands of our young people’s lives, to “liberate” the Iraqis who hate us. How many of the families of our lost ones believe “Bush kept us safe for seven years”?
The monetary cost of this war has a great deal to do with the economic problems we endure today. Shirley conveniently forgets that Bush took over a budget surplus from President Clinton and quickly turned it into a huge deficit, fueled principally by this unnecessary war, still bleeding billions of dollars, years after it began. That “Mission Accomplished” short war has devastated our economy and is still not “accomplished.”
As to the “hypocrisy” Shirley mentions, how about those opposed to the war being accused of hating our service people who have to fight in it? My late husband was a retired serviceman who joined as an 18-year-old in 1943 and served our country for 26 years. His eldest son is a Purple Heart Marine veteran of Vietnam. Still, I hope for a time when we humans become civilized enough to settle our differences peacefully.
Shirley claims that a major percentage of Americans dislike President Obama. Perhaps in his next diatribe he will explain how Obama came to be elected by such a large majority of votes.
President Obama is an intelligent, well-spoken man doing his best to clear up the mess he inherited from the last administration. He is already regaining the respect and friendship of the other nations. Let’s give the man a chance. He couldn’t possibly do worse than the last guy!
Barbara A. Bullette
Joplin
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