Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, January 29, 2008

(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)

Consequences of ‘Coyote Ugly’

I was surprised “Germany’s Coyote Ugly true to the movie” (After Hours, Jan. 24) was in Stars and Stripes. I got a sense of advertising for this establishment.

The picture with a young lady standing on a table and pouring beer while a young man “chugs” away is completely [against] the standards and provisions of the Army Substance Abuse Program. ASAP’s greatest success comes from preventing or reducing alcohol or any drug abuse. I use the word “abuse” because everyone who enters this establishment will not use good judgment as to his or her limits.

Commanders and noncommissioned officers are making great efforts to “deglamorize” the use of alcohol, meaning alcohol should never be the focus of any event.

You also mentioned the sexually suggestive writings on the walls, flirtatious bartenders and ubiquitous display of women’s bras hanging in the establishment.

Combine alcohol and sexual innuendos and we have a recipe for disaster. The armed forces are constantly being bombarded with allegations of sexual assault and/or harassment, as well as the number of driving under the influence [incidents]. This has compromised the morale and unit readiness of many organizations.

The armed forces do have a sense of responsibility for these young men and women serving our country. The parents, spouses and loved ones of these soldiers in the face of any incident(s) or fatalities inevitably turn to the chain of command for answers and more often place the blame on the supervisors or commanders of the victims.

Stars and Stripes is viewed by many as the voice of the armed forces. While we cannot control the actions of another individual or what establishments they choose to frequent, the content of this article seems to condone excessive drinking and illicit behavior, which can be detrimental and draw serious repercussions not only for Stripes, but the armed forces on a whole.

ATM fees appalling

As a civilian member of the Baumholder, Germany, community, I am appalled to discover that even though I have an account at Community Bank, a contract arm of Bank of America, I get charged $2 for each automated teller machine transaction at a stateside branch of Bank of America.

When I questioned this at the local branch in Baumholder, I was told that we do not have accounts with Bank of America. However, it is not like we have a choice of American banks in Europe.

I feel that either finance officials for U.S. contracts need to insist that Bank of America amend its policy to include overseas account holders, or they should investigate other bank contracts that do not charge a fee when using a stateside ATM. I do not feel they are treating the military community with any respect for all they do and that the fee for use of stateside Bank of America ATMs is unpatriotic.

Not like a fascist state

In “Coulter critic has support,” (letter, Jan. 22), the writer compares military support of Ann Coulter’s view of nationalism in the U.S. Army to an oppressive, authoritarian Nazi regime.

I’m appalled. To suggest a vigorous support for one’s nation and its military is tantamount to blind acquiescence to a cruel, despotic, genocidal government is reckless, to say the least, and not without consequence. I imagine there are Semitic servicemembers who take grave offense to such an analogy, considering it was Third Reich policy to exterminate said people.

I also imagine it is not tactful or pragmatic to derogatorily compare one’s fellow soldiers to prehistoric primates, especially when in an environment such as a deployment, where one is so endemically surrounded by them.

My ire was not stirred due to the politics of the letter writer; that is merely circumstantial. What concerns me is the nonchalant manner in which he expressed himself. People have a right to their own opinions, that’s the American way. But the specialist should be cognizant of the implications his statements imply. Our ability to exchange ideas free of reprisal is anything but the beginnings of a fascist state, like the 1938 Germany he mentions.

Insulting Coulter’s readers

Oddly enough, in his support for the Ann Coulter critic (“‘Rock bottom’ for Stripes,” letter, Dec. 28), the writer of “Coulter critic has support” managed to call anyone who enjoys Coulter’s column a “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.”

Just because he may not agree with any of the opinions posed by Coulter, I don’t feel it is necessary to denigrate her readers. I don’t agree with anything in the Huffington Post, yet I don’t call her readers brain-dead, tree-hugging socialists.

Let’s agree the opinions in each column are opinions, and we are free to agree or disagree as we see fit. Isn’t that one of the freedoms we are fighting so hard for?

Keep it on intellectual level

I found “Coulter critic has support” to be a little disturbing.

First, the specialist apparently doesn’t believe in free speech, stating that Ann Coulter’s opinions aren’t worthy of print.

And second, the rest of his letter calls conservatives various names, [including] “knuckle-dragging Neanderthals,” [and makes reference to 1938 Nazi Germany].

Being only a generation away from World War II (having had a father-in-law serving in the war and a mother-in-law who had to be in the Hitler Youth), I’m pretty sure that he has absolutely no idea what it’d be like to be in 1938 Germany.

How about an intellectual discussion on the issues, rather than just some name-calling?

Online bill-paying solves issue

Like most military and civilian personnel serving overseas, I share Dennis McAvoy’s concerns (“Bills delayed in mail,” letter, Jan. 22) about timely receipt of bills along with getting the payment to the financial institution on time. However, this is the 21st century, and there are steps that customers can take to solve this problem.

First you need to access your account through your financial institution’s Web site. If it does not have a Web site, it is time to find a new financial institution for your credit card needs.

Once you have access, you can monitor your credit card activity, and that makes it easier to detect any fraud sooner. Make arrangements through the Web site to either be notified that your statement is ready for viewing or have it e-mailed to you.

You can make payments online, which will ensure that your payment is received on time and not lost or delayed in the snail mail. This can be coupled with having a minimum-amount payment automatically made on a certain date to make sure you never have a late fee.

Looking to the future, many credit card companies have or will go to charging you a fee for receiving a paper statement.

Like it or not, the digital world is here to stay, and continued use of paper documents is going to cost.

Pacific edition

Iraq solution promising but …

Thanks for publishing a fascinating column by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, national security adviser for Iraq (“States’ rights is best approach for Iraq,” Opinion, Jan. 20). His five-province solution for Iraq’s long-term future sounds promising. But let’s not waste time. Let’s get on with it.

Of particular note was al-Rubaie’s chastising of Iran and Saudi Arabia for “meddling” in Iraq’s business, making political reconciliation between the Iraqis more difficult than it should be.

We often hear our administration call attention to Iran’s transgressions in this area. On the other hand, our government remains strangely silent about the same conduct emanating from Saudi Arabia. This “disconnect” is consistent with our government’s declaration of Iran as “evil,” while Saudi Arabia, for some reason, has been allowed to remain “good,” despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were from Saudi Arabia, and none was from Iran.

I was deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 years ago. The former Yugoslavia had to be divided into three countries, with one of those nations subdivided into three distinct provinces. Something similar is going to have to happen in Iraq. Our national elections are coming. And whether anyone in Iraq likes it or not, sufficient numbers of voters on both sides in America will not stand for another open-ended commitment to baby-sit the Iraqis.

Al-Rubaie should generally be commended. Americans should wish him luck. Still, he should not compare the level of reconciliation required in Iraq to our political debate in America, as he did at the start of his column. Last time I checked, Protestants and Catholics were not car-bombing each other in Minneapolis.

Government? He’s not buying

Many of the observations by Robyn Blumner and author Benjamin Barber, whom she quotes extensively in “Is ‘gimme gimme’ a must? I’m not buying it,” Opinion, Jan. 17), are spot on.

I have long believed that America’s biggest threat is a growing selfishness that manifests itself in pursuits to gain something for nothing, get rich quick, obtain instant gratification and, as pointed out by the author, extravagant consumerism, a pre-eminent life goal to acquire material possessions and a population in debt. However, Barber implies — and Blumner appears to agree — that the solution to reverse these unfortunate trends is government intervention.

He says consumers can’t help themselves because marketers manipulate them through manufactured “needs” and created “desire,” which induce compulsive spending. This description of the helpless masses has a Marxist ring to it and paints them as victims instead of accountable individuals. Barber seems to believe that the blinding of the masses is the only reason we have the Hummer, a symbol of individualism, pollution and dependence on foreign oil, instead of an efficient public transportation system!

According to Barber, the free market and politicians such as Ronald Reagan have led us astray and government intervention has a bad rap. He vilifies individual choice as an enemy to the collective good. Abraham Lincoln was right. No trans-Atlantic tyrant will ever enslave us. We will sow our own seeds of despotism.

I agree with Blumner: We need to “save more, [live within our means] and tamp down our material consumption to make room for other parts of ourselves.” But this change should come about by individual choices, not by government programs to save us from ourselves and protect the collective good. Oh, and government shouldn’t bail out our immoderate spenders when they face the negative consequences of their behavior, either.

Networks push their agenda

It amuses me to hear individuals complain of what the right says, while the left can say anything without any retribution.

It is clear that MSNBC, CNN and NBC are pushing their agenda and embracing the left. When Wolf Blitzer interviewed former President Carter and Carter stated that America was safe under the Clinton administration — I don’t need to list the places we were attacked and how many Americans were killed by terrorists prior to Sept. 11, 2001, but we were far from safe.

I can’t list the number of times the left loonies violate individuals’ freedom of speech at college campuses whenever anybody tries to speak to a forum they oppose, and they turn around and embrace [Iranian President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

To top that, the Democrats don’t even pay attention to the reports stating that the “surge” is working. Yet, they play to the far-left Bush haters, even though their approval rating is lower than the president’s.

The Democrats don’t realize they are repeating history some 32-plus years later, and how many people died in Southeast Asia after the fall of Saigon. Let the generals decide when the troops can be withdrawn from Iraq.

Three hours of MSNBC from 7-10 p.m. for soldiers in Iraq on American Forces Network News is too much. I am willing to assume that the majority of soldiers would prefer something other than MSNBC. If AFN News just looked at ratings in the U.S., Fox News shows have a far better rating than any shows on MSNBC.

Selective censorship unwise

The Jan. 22 letter written in support of an Ann Coulter critic, “Coulter critic has support,” sounds like the very “hateful rhetoric” the writer would like Stripes to stop printing and the rest of us to stop reading. The liberal response to Coulter always seems to be the same. While claiming to be enlightened — or, as the writer puts it, “self-aware” — they then must make the obligatory “hateful person” accusation, while calling all those who think differently from them a derogatory name such as the writer’s “knuckle-dragging Neanderthals” comment. Finally, the liberal must call for censorship of all views opposed to his own.

I do however congratulate the writer on becoming “self-aware” and highly recommend he take the next step and get a clue. The writer actually tries to equate Coulter’s patriotism with Hitler’s Germany. What happened in Germany, Russia, Italy and sadly still happens is that a charismatic but insane leader uses a vehicle such as nationalism, socialism, communism or any kind of “-ism” that resonates with a certain group of people. They then make those who oppose them appear evil, silence them, and control the rest by controlling their information.

Disturbingly, these are the very things I hear from the writer and the rest of the Coulter bashers. I commend Stars and Stripes for being the kind of newspaper that will not silence a voice like Ann Coulter’s or her liberal counterparts. Things like freedom of speech, ideas and expression are the best tools in keeping us out of the mire of oppression.