The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 42, Ed. 1 Monday, February 11, 2008 Page: 4 of 10
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OPINION
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THE BAYTOWN SUN
4
Monday, February 11,2008
Cheers
& Jeers
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Building an empire?
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David Bloom
Managing Editor
Luke Hales
City Editor
MA Bengtson
Community member
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Clifton E. “Cliff” Clements
Edtor/PuMsher
Jim Finley
retired Managing Editor
Jay Esh bach
Community member
Almost regardless of who wins the presi-
dential nomination, there’s small likelihood of
serious debate about the most crucial long-
term foreign-poljcy question facing the
American people: Do we or do we not want to
maintain a global empire by force of arms?
Or, to put it another way, what’s in it for us, as
individual citizens, for the United States to
maintain 800 military bases around the world?
Does the word “superpower” actually mean
anything in today’s world?
Hardly anybody in the foreign-policy estab-
lishment likes having it put that way. It strikes
them as vulgar and reductive. Hence anybody
who questions, for example, whether the
United States really needs to spend almost
twice as much on wars and weaponry as the
rest of the world combined gets caricatured as
a crackpot isolationist — the kind of person
who, in the usual formulation, would have
ignored Hitler’s military buildup in the 1930s.
Hence a seemingly infinite procession of
miniature “Hitlers” clanking along like targets
in a carnival shooting gallery — Ghaddaffi,
Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, etc. “Endless Enemies,” the late
Jonathan Kwitny dubbed them in his 1984
successfully occupied by foreign powers. In
the wake of genazir Bhutto’s assassination
(another Bush administration daydream gone
tragically awry), nuclear-armed Pakistan
teeters on the edge of dissolution. Al Qaeda
operates with increasing openness in remote
tribal areas not controlled by Pakistan’s gov-
ernment.
Meanwhile, scenes of desperate Palestinians
streaming out of Gaza into Egypt couldn’t
help but remind anybody not blinded by pro-
paganda of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The bar-
riers may be temporarily back in place, but the
Bush/Likud policy of treating the area like an
enormous outdoor prison camp is clearly
doomed to fail.
None of this is to say the U.S. “homeland,”
so-called, is seriously endangered, nor ever
was. From the numbers alone, it’s clear that no
nation or group of nations aspires to threaten
the United States by force of arms. Even
China’s estimated $65 billion military budget,
the second largest in the world, is less than 10
percent of ours. (China has almost four times
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A ‘childish’ reply
Mr. McAdams, it occurred to me
that you were confusing age, experi-
ence, military duty, heroism, and
bravery with being childish.
I am deeply grateful to all of you
who have served and defended our
country in the past, present, and who
will serve. Frankly, I think everyone
who reaches 18 and/or graduates
high school should serve in some
capacity: military, Red Cross, Peace
Corps, etc.
One of the definitions for being
childish is being silly. I think com-
plaining about where someone hangs
their flag is definitely silly, as long as
no disrespect is meant. I can’t imag-
ine that St. Jude Catholic Church
means any disrepect.
I am bothered by all the individuals
and businesses who continue to fly
their flags once they are torn and tat-
tered. I’m not referring to a bit frayed
but actually tattered. To me, that is a
shame and quite disrespectful. Flags
don’t cost that much, and it doesn’t
take a lot to replace your flag — for
most, it just means skipping a fast
food meal. To get rid of a worn flag,
contact a local veteran’s group.
Having a lot of experiences and
being older doesn’t save us from
being childish now and then, just as
being young doesn’t mean you can’t
be mature, brave, and contributing.
As a Catholic, I am use to attacks
on my faith. As a past member of St.
Jude’s I felt your comments were
uncalled for. I think most displays of
patriotism and support of our country
ought to be welcomed and not criti-
cized, especially when no disrespect
is meant. If someone is in error,
kinder words would be much more in
order instead of a verbal attack.
Saundra Smith
Baytown
The Sun encourages readers to submit
their own cheers and jeers. Cheers and
Jeers is published every Monday. Send
submissions to sunnews@baytownsun.com.
Jeers:
To the hidden, secretive establishments
around town housing 8-liner machines. While
these electronic gambling devices are not ille-
gal, the alleged payoffs, some in the realm of
thousands of dollars, are prohibited. An
unfortunate consequence of the existence of
these establishments is that those who do not
have the money to spend will cast their cur-
rency into the machines, with the hope that
they will be big winners in what is ultimately
a losing game.
To Tim Corman, a minister who is bringing
a new youth movement to Baytown’s
Westminster Presbyterian Church. Warehouse
242, named after Acts 2:42 in the Bible,
seeks not only to address the standard issues
facing kids like peer pressure and drug use,
but also more modem threats to the city’s
children, like self-mutilation, anorexia, and
internet predators. This new program will
hopefully serve to set kids on the right path
as they grow older and face the world on
their own.
To the San Jacinto Mall and Community
Health Choice, who brought the Healthy
Hearts Expo to Baytown this week. Health
and insurance experts were on hand, and
while residents had the opportunity to be
screened for high blood pressure, sickle cell
anemia and other diseases, there was plenty
of entertainment on hand, including a clown
for the kids. Many choose to wait until a seri-
ous health condition to be treated for their
ailments, but events like these encourage
people to take action for their health.
To Timothy Barnwell and Baytown’s own
Brad Lewis, who this week brought the All
Star Reading Program to the J.D Walker
Community Center. With the focus on stan-
dardized testing, the arts continue to be left
on the back burner in modem education, and
programs like this one both promote the
importance of reading and hopefully foster a
love of music as well.
Cheers:
To Don Murray, who after eight years on
Baytown’s City Council is giving up his seat
this year in pursuit of new adventures.
During his time on council, Murray made a
name for himself as a logical thinker, one
who analyzed each issue brought before the
council with great scrutiny. His work is very
evident in Baytown, especially for drivers, as
Spur 330 and its links to Highway 146 are in
place because of Murray’s work with the
transportation policy division of the Houston
Galveston Area Council. He will still be a
force in the community, and will be heading
up the Bayou Bowl’s Celebrity Golf
Tournament. As he leaves his post, Baytown
residents can look back on a job well done
and look forward to Murray’s future contribu-
tions to the community.
Cheers and Jeers is a collection of quick
hits of praise and comments on local, state
and national issues compiled by The
Baytown Sun editorial board.
phrase is often mistakenly attributed to him.)
jk.T_ ai ______10m ~ui_____i
Barbary pirates did. That said, the time’s rapid-
ly approaching when events outside U.S. con-
trol will force a serious re-examination of
America’s place in a fast-changing world. To
anybody with both eyes open, what the Bush
administration’s ill-conceived “war on terror”
has demonstrated is almost the precise oppo-
site of what its 2003 “shock and awe” bomb-
ing campaign was intended to show: not over-
whelming U.S. tactical strength, but all-too-
obvious U.S. strategic weakness.
To the neoconservative imagineers who
dreamed it up, the Iraq War was supposed to
address and phone number
not for publication should be
included. All letters and
guest columns are subject to
editing, and the Sun
reserves the right to refuse
to publish any submission.
We publish only original
material addressed to The
Baytown Sun bearing the
Old as you feel?
Mr. Fitts said you are only as “old
as you feel.” Not really sure what this
means. I don’t see any 70 year olds
flying high performance aircraft and
certainly not anyone that is 72 (which
McCain will soon be). Persons over
30 cannot even apply for a job as an
Air Traffic Controller and the manda-
tory age even for the very best con-
trollers is 61. We don’t want someone
over 61 controlling our planes and I
don’t think we want someone over 70
controlling our nuclear missiles
either.
The stats Mr. Fitts stated identify
those over 50 as older workers. I sup-
pose if you are only as old as you
feel then we could elect someone
who is 80 if they feel young enough.
I have no problem with older folks
especially since I am one but being
the leader of the free world and
Commander-in-Chief of the Military
Industrial Complex is going to
require one heck of a lot of energy
and someone past 70 ain’t gonna be
the best and brightest no matter how
young they think they may be.
I don’t think anyone doubts that
skills and perspicacity diminish over
time and while I generally like
McCain I think he is beyond his
prime and not up for the job.
Remember Ross Perot’s running
mate, James Stockwell? He was a
true American Hero and was awarded
the Medal of Honor and numerous^ "’
other awards for service to his coun-
try. At age 69, when he was a candi-
date for vice president, he was totally
out of it and the debates he partici-
pated in were embarrassing to say the
least. I felt sorry for him and knew
his best days were far behind him.
Romney only suspended his cam-
paign for President, he did not with-
draw. I think he is waiting to see
what happens between now and the
convention.
While age is not the only factor in
electing a President, it must be con-
sidered.
be the first step toward
American domination of
Asia, with the ultimate goal
of containing China. (The
‘^Project for a New
American Century’s”
founding document really
has to be read to be
believed.) Debate “the
surge” all you want. Five
years, close to 4,000 dead
Americans, hundreds of
thousands of dead Iraqis, and close to a trillion
dollars later, the United States remains tied
down there like Gulliver in Lilliput. Its main
strategic result has been to improve Iran’s posi-
tion, theoretically our next opponent in an
empire-building war that now appears blessed-
ly unlikely to happen.
Meanwhile, the Persians are making multi-
billion-dollar gas- and oil-development deals
with China, whose continued willingness to
buy American securities basically finances
U.S. deficit spending for the war. Further east,
the United States and its NATO allies find
tjjgmselves stuck in a slowly disintegrating
_____________.j_____________________ Afghanistan —- a nation (to use the term
book of that name. Subtitled “The Making of loosely) which history records has never been
an Unfriendly World,” the one-time Wall Street
Journal correspondent’s thesis was that the
majority of America’s armed interventions in
the Third World constituted a self-fulfilling
prophecy guaranteeing more or less constant
war.
Today, only maiginal political figures like
Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader
devote themselves to such arcane topics.
Indeed, one sometimes wonders whether the
foreign-policy “experts” and “resident schol-
ars” who decorate Washington think tanks
wouldn’t fear more than anything else the
diminishment of their own swollen self-regard
should Americans return to the Founding
Fathers’ views of enlightened national self-
interest.
Jefferson may have put it best in his 1801
inaugural address, promising “peace, com-
merce and honest friendship with all nations,
entangling alliances with none.” (Because it
builds upon Washington’s determination to
avoid getting sucked into European wars, the
No, Al Qaeda didn’t exist in 1801, although the U.S. population.) ‘
*-----—:J **-- ’----J Equally clear, however, is that the United
States cannot dominate the world by force. We
wouldn’t have enough troops to fight on all
these fronts even if Americans had ever
bought into the imperialist idea, which they
never have. Our vaunted nuclear arsenal has
become the economic equivalent of the
Egyptian pyramids: fantastically expensive but
useless. Maybe after Bush is gone, we can talk
about it.
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Clements, Clifford E. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 42, Ed. 1 Monday, February 11, 2008, newspaper, February 11, 2008; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1191610/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.