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Hernando Today

Earl, Rall: A Real Treat

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 27, 2008

Hernando Today has given us Frances Earl and Ted Rall on the same page on the same day, May 22. A few comments may be in order for both of them. Mr. Rall applauds the adversarial press, which exists abroad where they report what they wish, when they wish. In England there is the dreaded "D notice." When the UK government issues one of these, the media is prohibited from even mentioning the story in any way. It goes further and makes it a crime to even report that a D notice has been issued.

Pre-publication censorship was settled by the U.S Supreme Court in the case of the Pentagon Papers case. A responsible press will, however, as they did in World War II, consult with the government to ensure that no damage is being done to the security of the country.

Now for Ms. Earl, she is still lost in the wilderness of President Bush or anyone remotely related to him as being the absolute incarnate evil of the world. I can only wonder what will happen to her if a Democrat is elected president and most, if not all, of the ills she lays at the feet of President Bush don't just disappear into the night.

She touts diplomacy as the cure for all for the world's ills. Diplomacy has a place at the table in any negotiations, but negotiations in and of themselves will settle little. She mentions that diplomacy avoids killing. Yes, so does appeasement, but only for a brief time. We were holding diplomatic talks with the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941, while the bombs were falling on Pearl Harbor. The British went to Munich and came back with "Peace in our Time." History can tell us how long diplomacy lasted before that killing began.

In more modern times, diplomacy certainly worked for the Israelis in 1967 and 1973, and the final chapter in that series of diplomatic encounters has yet to be written. Kuwait was also another triumph for diplomacy, I can remember after strong diplomatic protests and meetings Saddam Hussein packing up and leaving Kuwait to return to Baghdad. Oh yes, diplomacy backed by 500,000 armed troops hastened his return I'm sure.

In Iran exactly what are we going to negotiate with on our side? We don't want them to have nuclear weapons and they do. They have a program that will inevitably lead to such a device. Conceivably we could agree to hand them a nuclear weapon and they would cancel their program, but that seems a bit counterproductive. The world has been trying sanctions on Iran as a solution. Sanctions, as the world knows them now, have worked wonders in Cuba. Forty years on they are still alive and while not well, they are still able to oppress their people.

The only sanctions that work are a total embargo on all goods and services, nothing in, nothing out. Yes, this would be a hardship on the innocent, but the consequences of Iran gaining nuclear access could be disastrous for the rest of the world. Just think if one or more nuclear devices were detonated, the environmental disaster that would result would have impact far beyond the Middle East.

It has been said that diplomacy without firepower is useless and that firepower without diplomacy is useless. They are complementary not exclusionary to each other.

As for Ms. Earl, one final comment. She continues to repeat that 43,000 service people were called up who were medically unfit for service. I am sure that the reserve and National Guard units were notified that a number were unfit for various reasons, but how many actually went abroad against medical advice? I suspect very few. Any military commander when I served who defied medical advice did so at the peril of his or her career and possible disciplinary action. In the days of the draft many were called for service only to be found medically unfit, so calling up is a far cry from actually serving. Just call up on the Internet the article she cites. I am sure that the person on kidney dialysis was deployed, same goes for the person on chemotherapy.

It is nice to toss numbers around, but figures can lie and liars can figure.

I applaud Hernando Today for allowing Ms. Earl and Mr. Rall to rant and rave about the ills of our country and its leaders. And also for allowing those who oppose these viewpoints to rant and rave in opposition. But just go abroad and see how bad our country is regarded. In my career with the U.S. Foreign Service, we could always evaluate a country by the lines at the visa window. Those at the U.S. Embassies were always the longest.

Harry E. Chamberlain

Spring Hill

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