Thursday, March 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Letters

Baghdad kids will feel `Shock and Awe'

"Shock and Awe"? Yes, since over half of Baghdad's population is children 15 years old and under, these are apt words to describe the reactions upon their young faces when thousands of our missiles rain down upon them. "Shock and Awe" indeed. Shortly thereafter will come "Horror and Disbelief," as they experience for themselves being burned alive, or having their appendages torn from them. Next up, "Excruciating and Prolonged," mild terms to describe the unimaginable pain that survivors' burned and dismembered bodies will feel.

"Censored and Sanitized" describes the way the Pentagon, and our corporately "Leashed and Neutered" mass media will pass along images and accounts of the carnage. "Fraudulent and Discredited" accurately portrays our president's ever-changing list of reasons for our attack upon this weak and impoverished nation.

"Unprovoked and Illegal" are the terms that war crime tribunals use to describe wars that are not waged in response to direct attack, and that go unsanctioned and opposed by United Nations majority. "Hidden and Safe" are where the puppet masters who engineered this slaughter will be, while the innocent children of Baghdad are dying in "Shock and Awe."

--David Singelyn

Winners of wars get to write history

I am a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), which means that you will probably not read this any farther. Liberals like yourself are afraid of the truth. The truth is what the SCV is all about. In fact, we have black members. Go to my website at http://jonnyreb54.tripod.com/myarticles and read my newspaper articles that I write about what my SCV camp and other local camps do. Of course this only shows that the SCV really is a heritage organization. However, on my site I also list books written by famous authors that tell the truth about that War.

Look at it this way, sir. The victor of a war is the one that writes the history of that war. When Texas won the war against Mexico, we wrote that all of our men in the Alamo died fighting. Just how did we know if everyone was killed? Now we are finding out through hundreds of Mexican diaries from that time period that are saying the same thing. About 20 of our men in the Alamo gave up and were executed.

Have you ever really read a history book and seen how that it talks about all of the Northern men being good Christians? Then why was the South called the Bible Belt? Why was Robert E. Lee nicknamed the Praying General and Grant was nothing but a common drunk? Oh, that's right. The history books don't say anything about his drinking problem. That would make the North look bad. Are you starting to see what I am saying yet?

I challenge you to do this. Go out and buy three books on the Civil War written by well-known authors. Be honest to yourself and listen to it all.

--Vernon Gillen

Police, politicians cash in on drug war

Mr. Shelden is right on the mark ["The Neverending Drug War," Local View, Randall G. Shelden, March 13]. Truth to tell, the drug warrior police, politicians, officials, media and civilians (secretly) don't list victory as an objective in their expensive and oppressive trillion-dollar war. When they do spout their "zero tolerance/total victory" rhetoric, how many of your readers actually believe them? How many actually believe that this year's multibillion-dollar drug war budget will be the one that will achieve total victory after decades of billion-dollar budgets have totally failed?

Just remember that the drug czars and warriors' jobs depend on the perpetual prosecution of, but NEVER a victory in, the drug war. Also, remember that the politicians depend on the drug war and its rhetoric to scare up votes (by scaring voters). The politicians also rely on the drug war to sustain their constituent industries and institutions that depend on the economics of prohibition in order to make generous profits and campaign contributions that keep the drug warrior politicians in power and, therefore, keep themselves in business.

Remember what H.L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

Maybe the corrupt politicians and media are required to adhere to the party line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison and military-industrial complex, the drug testing industry, the drug treatment industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politicians themselves et al. can't live without the budget justification, not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them. The drug war also promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties that are supposed to be inalienable according to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

--Myron Von Hollingsworth,

Fort Worth, Texas

U.S. punishes marijuana but not martinis

Kudos to Randall Shelden for an excellent March 13 op-ed. The drug war is in large part a war against marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. Punitive marijuana laws have little, if any, deterrent value. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to misguided reactionaries in Congress intent on legislating their version of morality. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is inadvertently subsidizing organized crime.

The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers on confusing drug prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big losers in this battle are the American taxpayers who have been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate response to nontraditional consensual vices.

--Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.,

Program officer,

Drug Policy Alliance,

Washington, D.C.

Shelden tells truth about war on drugs

Re: "The Neverending Drug War," [Local View, Randall G. Shelden, March 13]: Yeah! You are paying attention! I don't do illegal drugs or abuse legal ones (obligatory prequalifier). I was beginning to believe that the press no longer believed in free speech. We need you guys to tell the truth. The war on drugs is a lot more than just about drugs. Prohibition didn't work before. Saying that if we legalize drugs, we may as well legalize murder or rape, is ridiculous. If we supposedly care about "the children," why don't we throw the McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise owners in jail for life? If you think that's a stupid argument, then how come heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death?

--Sandra Colasanti,

Maple Ridge, British Columbia