Senior softball players come to family's aid

A few days ago the players in various senior softball leagues were told about a mother with two small children who had recently moved to our community and were in severe economic peril.

Within three days of hearing about the plight of this family, the players had contributed various furniture items and more than $1,000 to help this family get on their feet.

These men are the type of individuals who truly care about their neighbors, and I am proud to call them my friends.

I have decided to therefore decree the rest of this month as "Hug a Senior Softball Player Month," for their compassion and generosity in saving the holidays for these deserving people.

These guys are terrific!

Bob Gill

Weeki Wachee

The road to peace

After months of waiting, President Barack Obama finally presented his strategy for the conflict in Afghanistan, and his critics immediately jumped all over him with criticism, especially Fox News, mostly about the 18-month withdrawal plan.

Is this 18-month withdrawal plan a good idea? Absolutely, yes.

Consider this: What is the surest way to get men up in arms? It's having their country invaded by a foreign army. The situation in Afghanistan is no different. In fact, one of the main recruiting methods al-Qaida uses is to tell potential recruits that they must join together to fight off the invading American army, that they must protect their way of life from an invader who will take over their nation and impose their will on them.

This is clearly a very effective recruiting tool as seen by the growing number and effectiveness of al-Qaida attacks. The only way to counter it is for America to keep its promise and withdraw all troops right on the 18-month withdrawal date. If at that withdrawal date, al-Qaida and the Taliban are still a problem, then the withdrawal must proceed anyway and any al-Qaida and Taliban remnants must be taken care of by the Afghanistan and Pakistan armies.

It must be realized that right now the Pakistan army is attacking the Taliban and al-Qaida on their eastern front, and the American army is attacking from the west. It's not likely that the Taliban and al-Qaida can survive this pincer attack. If any Taliban or al-Qaida survive this, they will be weak and disoriented. So an 18-month attack plan may be enough.

Clearly, it must be realized that Afghanistan is just one battle in a long war. We can win or loose this battle but the war will still go on. So, it is more important to keep the promise of the 18-month withdrawal date than to defeat the Taliban/al-Qaida threat in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida is not just an Afghanistan problem; it is a worldwide problem, with al-Qaida cells in most countries, although the exact number is not known. To defeat them, we need the cooperation of every country we can get, and we will not get that cooperation if America is seen as a lying imperialist.

Al-Qaida is not a standing army; it is a secretive civilian militia that fights from the shadows. To flush them out you must have the cooperation of the host country al-Qaida is in. Without the cooperation of the rest of the world's nations, al-Qaida will be more difficult to find and defeat. And the only way to get that cooperation is for America to keep its promises - especially the 18-month withdrawal date.

What al-Qaida is trying to do is conquer the world with intimidation and murder of innocent civilians. This has been tried countless times in history, and it has never been successful. If al-Qaida tried to conquer the world with a program of peace and love, they might stand a chance, but since suicide bombers are all they have to offer, they are doomed to failure.

The only thing we can do is to fight an intelligent fight to limit the damage until they dissolve by themselves. Then once we convince Islam that we are people who keep our promises, like the 18-month withdrawal date, we will prove that we are not out to conquer other nations.

We can then move forward to convince that small fraction of Islam that hatred of non-believers will accomplish nothing but bloodshed and so is not worth it. In addition to this, if we can also solve the Palestine/Israel problem, then we will be on the road to peace with Islam.

Jose Lugo

Spring Hill