Letters

Letters to the editor, Nov. 8

Hernando Today
Published: November 8, 2012

Predictions come true

In my letter to the editor of April 15, 2012 (Let's get focused) I stated that the Republican Party is devoting so much time and effort to the presidency campaign that it is overlooking the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Senate is up for grabs, but the Republicans do not seem to care. The odds of success there are higher than is defeating the incumbent president. The Republican Party should focus its energies on the attainable goal of winning a Senate majority.

I was criticized at that time for my comments.

What happen? I told you so. We did not win the White House, and we failed to capture a majority in the Senate. Why? Very simple: Romney failed to convince the people that he is best for the job. He flip flop on health care and foreign policy.

The 47 percent issue, the tea party, and did not convinced the people that he will protect and defend the Constitution. He was successful in business, but it was solely to make money. Government is to protect and serve the people, not to make profit. We did not win a majority in the Senate because the party was too busy trying to capture the presidency.

The Republican Party has gone to the extreme right and that is not acceptable by the people. It is time for the party to reinvent itself, move away from the extreme right, get a broom and do a clean sweep.

Start with the executives of the Republican National Committee, then the State Republican Committee, and finally the Hernando County Executive Committee and replace them with new people, new ideas, and new hope for the future of the Party. Move away from the extreme right and from the Tea Party, and choose a new direction for the people to follow.

The Republican attitude to win elections at any cost, no matter whose life we ruin, is an option no longer acceptable by the people.

Anthony Palmieri

Spring Hill

Tristam off the mark

For Pierre Tristam to compare the mega storm Sandy with Benghazi is a bit disingenuous to say the least.

Let's just suppose that the administration in Washington received a message say about July that a massive storm was going to impact the Middle Atlantic States in early November. And let's suppose that having received that message from Sandy the politicians and administration people did nothing.

Would not those bureaucrats be guilty at the very least of malfeasance in office, possibly even criminal charges relating to the deaths of people in the path of Sandy?

That is exactly what happened in Benghazi, the administration was notified of security shortcomings and chose to do exactly nothing, in fact it could be said they did less than nothing, they reduced the security forces there against the express wishes of the Ambassador and his security professionals.

This decision was made by people who had never been on the ground in Libya. This violated one of the first security rules, the person on the ground knows what they need, not some deskbound 8 to 5 bureaucrat in D.C.

Compounding their actions before the attack was the total lack of support after it began. Unlike most terrorist attacks (forget the video, that won't wash anymore), which are hit and run, this attack lasted for over 6 hours.

I know the U.S. Navy maintains a base in Sigonella, Sicily and another at Aviano, Italy. The very presence of U.S. forces overhead would have, at the very least given the attackers pause for thought.

If an AC-130 would have been available, just a couple of bursts from the mini-guns and any sane person would get on his camel and get out of town. What did the administration in Washington and the Commander in Chief of the most powerful military in the world choose to do? Exactly nothing!

Oh yes, thanks to modern technology these same leaders of our military and foreign policy were able to watch four Americans die, I guess they looked at it as the ultimate reality show.

There are people who should be removed from office for errors of judgment if nothing else. But the ghosts of these four Americans deserve justice, not only from the people who perpetrated the attack, but from the people in the administration who they trusted with their lives and who failed them so miserably.

Harry E. Chamberlain

Spring Hill