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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2015)
2 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Rachel Marsden American Voices Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not neces- sarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: Regarding his letter two weeks ago, I have clarified with Bill Antilla, both in writing and in person, that I never said the VFW or the American Legion supports the Black Butte Trail. The written and audio minutes of the meet- ing he referred to confirm this. I am sorry he was misinformed. Chuck Humphreys s s s To the Editor: Two weeks ago, The Nugget published a Letter to the Editor by Bill Antilla stating that Chuck Humphreys falsely testified “local veterans groups, including VFW Post 8138, support the so called Sisters to Black Butte Trail”—during a Sisters Parks & Recreation District Board meeting. Mr. Antilla also asked Mr. Humphreys to retract his statement in writing to the Nugget Newspaper. I was present at the SPRD meeting. I neither heard, nor do the written minutes or audio record support Mr. Antilla’s accusation. Mr. Antilla’s sources of “intelligence” were grossly inaccurate. Rather than launching a public attack, it would have been preferable if Mr. Antilla had first verified the accuracy of the allegation and had first met with Mr. Humphreys to convey his concern about what he had been told was a mis-representation of his organization. Following publication of his letter, Mr. Antilla was politely advised, in private, that his statement was factually incorrect. This was done with more than enough time for him to rectify his error in the following week’s paper. I had every reason to expect that anyone in his position would have had the decency and courtesy to have done that, including an apol- ogy for false allegations. In my book, shooting first and asking questions later is not an effective strategy See letterS on page 15 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny 74/39 72/36 73/35 67/33 72/35 71/na The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Publisher - Editor: Kiki Dolson News Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Williver Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Advertising: Lisa Buckley Graphic Design: Jess Draper Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Accounting: Erin Bordonaro The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2014 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. U.S. President and Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama has man- aged to accomplish such unimaginable foreign affairs inversions during his tenure that the heads of my U.S. intelligence agency pals are spinning. The Pentagon continues to churn out daily airstrikes against the Islamic State as if it’s playing a video game — with about the same real- world effectiveness. The result is that Russia, for the second time in as many years, has offered to step in and help get a grip on the situation in Syria, with Iran playing Robin to Russia’s Batman. Guess who ends up being the Joker? In 2013, Obama consid- ered asking Congress for its blessing to stage a mili- tary intervention in Syria because efforts to build a Syrian rebel faction to take out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had failed. Obama was spared the trouble when Russia stepped in to defuse the situation — but not before some of the “rebels” had taken their new skills and toys and rebranded into the Islamic State. That situation has led to a flood of migrants of unknown identity and back- ground into Europe. In the wake of a shell landing in its embassy compound in Damascus, Russia is vowing support for the Syrian government in defeating the Islamic State. This positioning is both nuanced and strate- gic. Notice that Russia isn’t saying it’s going to send in troops. Instead, it’s going to “assist Syria” — the ally under siege from terrorists — to defeat the enemy. At a time when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is respond- ing to all of this with the usual “Assad must go” rhetoric, Russia’s insistence on positioning Assad as the frontman for the solu- tion to a problem that the United States can’t resolve could weaken the U.S. posi- tion on the issue of Assad’s removal — particularly if the Assad regime defeats the terrorists and accomplishes what America and its allies couldn’t. The current U.S. for- eign policy disaster has also unfathomably given Iran the opportunity to position itself as an agent of stability in the region by contributing to the defeat of the Islamic State. With Iran and Russia now filling the vacuum created by ongoing American incompe- tence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just visited Moscow to discuss Middle Eastern security with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Israel and Russia have a common interest in ensuring stability in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said after the meeting with Putin. “I am here because of the difficult security situation, which, as you know, has become more and more complicated on our northern borders over these last years, and particu- larly over these last weeks.” Netanyahu then expressed concern that Iran would set up a “terrorist front (against Israel) on the Golan Heights.” Russia is a longtime ally of Iran and Syria, but Putin condemned attacks on Israel and added that “the Syrian army today is not in a state to be up to opening a sec- ond front. It has enough to do just trying to save Syria’s own statehood.” There is actually an upside to all of this for America, however inadver- tent. It’s not a bad thing for the U.S. to wean itself off the Middle East. Judging from comments made by Republican presi- dential contenders during last week’s debate, many believe that leadership on the international stage requires blunt-force military intervention. This makes about as much sense as try- ing to get fit by doing noth- ing but maximum-weight bench presses. Recent his- tory demonstrates that this approach has only bolstered the enemy. American leadership should focus on securing energy independence, which will enable the U.S. to pull up anchor in the Middle East for good and deal with the region more selectively. © 2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.