Desert Dispatch Letters to the editor - June 18, 2008
Reeb (the Dweeb) parrots
GOP's Obama smear campaign
by
Ira Gwin
It’s a temptation to refute Mr. Reeb’s latest sly and cunning smear against Senator Barack Hussein Obama point by point (”Obama a risky and cunning candidate,” June 11). The veiled reference to the Senator’s middle name is particularly despicable, especially from someone who reportedly taught journalism and therefore fully understands the impact of innuendo.
After all the revelation on the road to war, the lies from the Bush administration, the erosion of our liberties, the deaths of over 4,000 American soldiers, the murder of countless Iraqi civilians, and the cost of $12 billion every month that we are borrowing from our children and grandchildren, Mr. Reeb is upset that Senator Obama was against the war, does not support this government’s war policies, and has promised to end it and get our troops out as quickly as possible.
But a direct response to Reeb’s desperate defense of the worst Republican Administration since Reagan will not change his mind, or the minds of readers who still believe that another four years of Bush Lite in the guise of John McCain would be just fine. I believe most people have already decided between the two candidates and from now until the elections we will all be plowing the same ground and slinging the same mud.
There may be a few people out there who haven’t made up their minds, and both parties will do what they can to win them over. To help them decide, here are a few points to consider.
One: If you like our energy policy, or lack thereof, if you like paying $5 plus for gas, if you enjoy seeing your president on his knees begging the Saudi Kings for a little more oil, if you are happy that the oil companies are sucking your paycheck right into their pockets, vote for McCain.
Two: If you don’t think it’s really important how many Americans are still in Iraq, if you think we could and should be there for the next 100 years, if you don’t care if we have a plan for the vets and their continued health care, vote Republican.
Three: If you like giving tax breaks to the top one percent of the population, if you really believe that big corporations are your friends, if you don’t mind that your jobs are going overseas, if you believe that unions are un-American, then vote for John McCain. Four: If you really believe the only way to deal with foreign nations, including dictators, is down the barrel of a gun, then stay the Bush/Cheney course with four more years of McCain.
Or you could stand up, take your country back, and vote for change. You could vote for an administration that would honestly work to wean this economy from a dependency on foreign oil to survive. We could make a commitment to leave Iraq and bring our troops home as soon as possible, we would have to negotiate a pull-out with the neighboring countries so everyone would have a stake in a stable Iraq, and we would abandon our bases and imperial designs on the region. We cannot morally nor economically sustain an empire based on military might and fear. The Romans couldn’t, the British couldn’t, and neither can we.
The Republican slander machine is just getting started and in the coming weeks there will be many more articles like the one from Reeb. Karl Rove no longer openly soils the halls of the White House, but his dirty tricks playbook is still being studied by apologists like Reeb and the McCain Republican machine.
Ira Gwin
Barstow
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