Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, December 19, 2006

European and Mideast editions

(EDITOR’S NOTE: These are the letters that appeared in each edition of Stripes on this publication date. Click here to jump ahead to the Pacific edition letters)

Soldier got sweetheart deal

I have seen outrageous antics and poor precedents created by lawyers before, but this takes the cake — and the pie, too. Spc. Suzanne Swift (“AWOL soldier strikes deal that would give her an honorable discharge,” Dec. 13) seems to have a new twist on how to get out of deployment. She said, “I was sexually harassed.”

Not only did she say she was harassed and plea-bargained out of going to prison, but here is the important part: she didn’t have to prove she was harassed.

I don’t know about you, but that is sexism.

So here is the headline for soldiers: If you’re female yell loudly, “sexual harassment.” We won’t require anything from you and we’ll let you off. And by the way, when you get caught having sex with your supervisor, yell, “sexual harassment.”

Well, [is the military] going to give the male soldiers the same consideration? Some soldiers have deployed two and three times and never complained. How about combat harassment?

How about instead of this court-martial being politically correct, [the military] instead give[s] this soldier the death penalty and send[s] a message that if you don’t go, you die.

The least punishment for any deserter should be a dishonorable discharge, period.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Ron Mavity
Camp Liberty, Iraq

Article dishonored troops

As a rule, I usually do not respond to articles that I read in the paper. However, after reading the article on the Army deserter who fled to Canada, I decided it was time to make an exception. (“Army deserter still considers himself a soldier,” Dec. 12)

I enjoy reading Stars and Stripes but was disappointed that the editors chose to publish the article on Sgt. Patrick Hart. I do not mean to belittle what convictions and choices Hart made. But there are plenty of soldiers, sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and airmen over here making huge sacrifices to serve their country. To print an article about the plight of one man who chose not to honor a commitment he made to his country is ludicrous.

Such a story dishonors those who are serving their country and honoring their commitments.

Petty Officer 1st Class Larry R. Chase
Camp Buehring, Kuwait

Deserter is not a soldier

I had to write about the story of Sgt. Patrick Hart. This guy is a flat-out idiot.

The headline hooked me (“Army deserter still considers himself a soldier”). I laughed out loud when I read his predeployment preparation of watching gruesome war videos to get ready for his obligation in Iraq. Is he for real? And now here he is in Canada, AWOL and proud of it.

I’ve got news for this sergeant, and I use that term very loosely. He has disgraced the uniform he used to wear by running away and hiding from his unit, his fellow soldiers and the Army.

To make matters worse, I read that he and some other deserters put on black T-shirts in public that read “AWOL,” and were cheered by Canadians. Seems to me he’s proud of what he did and is displaying it in public, trying to win pity and support.

Here’s my advice to him: Stay in Canada.

He is a coward, and if he is somehow brought back to the States to face his charges, I hope he gets the maximum punishment.

He makes me and other soldiers sick.

Staff Sgt. Mark Aldridge
Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan

Thanks to Stripes

Sad-hearted, I just read your story about Spc. Ross Andrew McGinnis and Spc. Jordan William Hess. (“GI sacrificed his life so others could live,” Dec. 13).

Why are honorable men and their acts like this never mentioned on the world news? Thanks, Stars and Stripes, that they have you!

Thanks that Stars and Stripes acts as an intercessor for those who cannot speak for themselves anymore. And thanks again for giving those who are not mentioned elsewhere a name and a face.

Elfriede Moehlenbrock
Sembach, Germany

Quit your whining

The writer of “No AFN in Arifjan PCB” (letter, Dec. 8), simply amazes me. I would like to refer to some of the sergeant’s complaints, and I would like to explain something.

Being soldiers deployed to a U.S. Army base means that we are trained and prepared to fight any enemy, in every terrain, under all circumstances. Every bit of support in a combat zone should be appreciated and not expected.

It surprises me that deployed soldiers, who are not even dealing with hostile intent on a daily basis, are the ones complaining about something as ridiculous as not having the proper access to American Forces Network.

I would like to point out to these individuals that there are thousands of soldiers living in numerous self-improved combat outposts, eating Meals, Ready to Eat three times a day and having to watch a movie on their laptops as a form of entertainment.

Honestly, I wish these guys and girls had a chance to watch 20 channels of Kuwaiti television. I bet you that they wouldn’t complain about not having AFN.

So, let us provide them with the necessary entertainment to ease their minds, because they truly deserve it more than anybody else.

And by the way, for all the complainers out there, when you come back from the dining facility, stop at the Internet cafe and order your own personal AFN satellite receiver and dish, [also] stop at the post exchange for some cheese for your whine and lay on your comfy mattresses thinking about your fellow comrades in the heat of the battle.

Sgt. Ralph Van Houtem
Camp Ramadi, Iraq

Conference excluded much

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [recently held] a conference to discuss whether the Holocaust took place. Does it matter if it took place in regard to the “plight” of the Palestinians?

He’s counting on our ignorance of history and using it as a lever in his finagling.

Jerusalem was Jewish. Then it was Jewish and many other things — Christian even, as were Turkey, Egypt, North Africa, the Mediterranean. That is until Muslims started conquering them around 700 years ago. The arrival of Islam is what eventually led to those darned Crusades, which probably wouldn’t have happened had it not been for Muslim expansionism.

The Palestinians used to be called the Philistines — yes, like that Goliath guy who David beaned, starting all the current stone throwing — who originated in southern Greece. However, modern Palestinians trace more of their heritage (and most certainly their religion) from Muslim invaders who came centuries later.

So if Ahmadinejad really wants to get technical, it’s the Palestinians who should leave: The Jews conquered it first — so they have what the ancients called “dibs” — from the Canaanites, Amorites, Hevites, Jebusites and many other pesky ’ites long before there were a people known as “Palestinians” and way before “there is no God but Allah” was uttered by anyone.

The Jews didn’t just appear from nowhere, write the Torah and start taking people’s land — they are from there. And when the rest of the world, including Christendom, denied them sanctuary after visiting upon them centuries of horror, they returned. The question they should be trying to answer is not the “Jewish Question” — but myriad Arab problems. The Palestinian “cause” is just being used as another excuse for more violence, hate and conquest.

Mark Nichols
Al Taqaddum, Iraq

Pacific edition

Article dishonored troops

As a rule, I usually do not respond to articles that I read in the paper. However, after reading the article on the Army deserter who fled to Canada, I decided it was time to make an exception. (“Army deserter still considers himself a soldier,” Dec. 13, Korea edition)

I enjoy reading Stars and Stripes but was disappointed that the editors chose to publish the article on Sgt. Patrick Hart. I do not mean to belittle what convictions and choices Hart made. But there are plenty of soldiers, sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and airmen over here making huge sacrifices to serve their country. To print an article about the plight of one man who chose not to honor a commitment he made to his country is ludicrous.

Such a story dishonors those who are serving their country and honoring their commitments.

Petty Officer 1st Class Larry R. Chase
Camp Buehring, Kuwait

Deserter is not a soldier

I had to write about the story of Sgt. Patrick Hart. This guy is a flat-out idiot.

The headline hooked me (“Army deserter still considers himself a soldier”). I laughed out loud when I read his predeployment preparation of watching gruesome war videos to get ready for his obligation in Iraq. Is he for real? And now here he is in Canada, AWOL and proud of it.

I’ve got news for this sergeant, and I use that term very loosely. He has disgraced the uniform he used to wear by running away and hiding from his unit, his fellow soldiers and the Army.

To make matters worse, I read that he and some other deserters put on black T-shirts in public that read “AWOL,” and were cheered by Canadians. Seems to me he’s proud of what he did and is displaying it in public, trying to win pity and support.

Here’s my advice to him: Stay in Canada.

He is a coward, and if he is somehow brought back to the States to face his charges, I hope he gets the maximum punishment.

He makes me and other soldiers sick.

Staff Sgt. Mark Aldridge
Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan

Not all from Buffalo bad

It is bad enough that you have to run a sympathetic article on Army traitor Patrick Hart, but did you have to show a photo of him in all of his Buffalo Bills regalia?

Showing this man decked out in my favorite football team’s colors has made it hard for me not be harassed while at work.

Let me assure the rest of the military community here in Kuwait that although Buffalo, N.Y., is the bluest city in the bluest state in America, it is not entirely peopled with cowards, no matter what Stars and Stripes would have you believe.

Go Bills! Go Sabres!

Spc. Paul Lacapruccia
Camp Arifjan, Kuwait

Soldier got sweetheart deal

I have seen outrageous antics and poor precedents created by lawyers before, but this takes the cake — and the pie, too. Spc. Suzanne Swift (“AWOL soldier who claimed sexual harassment pleads guilty for lesser sentence,” Dec. 14) seems to have a new twist on how to get out of deployment. She said, “I was sexually harassed.”

Not only did she say she was harassed and plea-bargained out of going to prison, but here is the important part — she didn’t have to prove she was harassed.

I don’t know about you, but that is sexism.

So here is the headline for soldiers: If you’re female yell loudly, “sexual harassment.” We won’t require anything from you and we’ll let you off. And by the way, when you get caught having sex with your supervisor, yell, “sexual harassment.”

Well, [is the military] going to give the male soldiers the same consideration? Some soldiers have deployed two and three times and never complained. How about combat harassment?

How about instead of this court-martial being politically correct, [the military] instead give[s] this soldier the death penalty and send[s] a message that if you don’t go, you die.

The least punishment for any deserter should be a dishonorable discharge, period.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Ron Mavity
Camp Liberty, Iraq

Thanks to Stripes

Sad-hearted, I just read your story about Spc. Ross Andrew McGinnis and Spc. Jordan William Hess. (“GI sacrificed his life so others could live,” Dec. 13).

Why are honorable men and their acts like this never mentioned on the world news? Thanks, Stars and Stripes, that they have you!

Thanks that Stars and Stripes acts as an intercessor for those who cannot speak for themselves anymore. And thanks again for giving those who are not mentioned elsewhere a name and a face.

Elfriede Moehlenbrock
Sembach, Germany

Servicemembers are servants

This is a response to the writer of the letter “Servant to None,” (Dec. 11).

First, when you say you are a servant to none, it’s really saying that you only serve yourself. That’s holding yourself to a pretty low standard and will lead you to a trite and meaningless existence.

We know, however, that you serve America because you’re in the military. You have pledged your life to uphold the principles of freedom and democracy. Funny that you forgot those are fundamentally Christian principles. Our country was founded by Christians using those principles. Christians such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and … need I go on?

It was Christian beliefs that inspired the tolerance for the freedoms of speech and religion that you exercise so ungraciously. Don’t you ever wonder why the historically non-Christian world, with few exceptions, is neither free nor democratic?

Second, when you bring up the Inquisition, it’s like accusing a modern American of slavery. I am no more an Inquisitor than you are a slave owner. Funny that people like you can remember the few Christians who started these atrocities but forget the many Christians that ended them. Corruption in the Catholic Church, you say? Have you ever heard of the Reformation when Martin Luther caused the split between the Catholic and Protestant churches for that very reason?

Last, the Old Testament is the book of the Jewish people. It’s kept in the Christian Bible to illustrate the difference between the vengeful God of the First Covenant and the forgiving God of the Second Covenant. That would be the part where everybody is forgiven for their sins and where Jesus preaches the ideals of love and tolerance, pretty much everything that Christianity is about. Mankind has been trying to understand the Bible since it was written. Don’t presume that your Google search on it makes you wiser than everyone throughout history.

Aaron Bretl
Camp Victory, Iraq