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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
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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
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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.