2 Wednesday, October 21, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Editorial… Everybody wins on Whychus Creek Something remarkable has happened on Whychus Creek over the past two decades. A stream that once ran dry in the summer now flows through Sisters even in the midst of drought. And this was done without harming farmers who depend on its waters for irriga- tion. In fact, they are getting more water than they might have expected under current condi- tions. And habitat for fish and wildlife is better than it has been since perhaps the early 1960s. Diversion dams have been removed and those who diverted the water have benefitted from improved, more efficient irrigation sys- tems. And now water from the creek is gener- ating electrical power that goes into the local system. This kind of win-win-win outcome doesn’t just happen. It required bringing together a host of government agencies, non-profits, and private citizens. The agencies, organizations and individuals who all came to the table to restore Whychus Creek might ordinarily be expected to be at odds. But through many years of hammering out agreements that met a variety of needs, everyone could step away from the table with something they wanted — more water in the creek; more water on farms; habitat restoration and power generation. The piping of miles of Three Sisters Irrigation District canals was not without con- troversy. Many people were reluctant to see open canals that had become defacto streams — with the attendant wildlife and aesthetic benefits — decommissioned. And some felt that the piping project was being imposed in a heavy-handed manner. There were some clashes that bore out the truth of the old saw that “whiskey’s for drinking; water is for fight- ing over.” But piping was the right thing to do. For everybody. As the Central Oregon region faces continued drought, farmers are getting water who wouldn’t be if the old open ditches had not been piped. And Whychus Creek is health- ier than it has been in decades. Other irrigation districts across the state are looking to TSID to see how it’s done. A revolution in irrigation started right her in Sisters Country. TSID Manager Marc Thalacker and the board can be justly proud of their vision and efforts to make that happen. And the rest of us can take heart from the example. Sometimes, with patience, persis- tence and vision, everybody gets a win. Jim Cornelius, News Editor Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let- ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily 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: As an attorney I found Roger Detweiler’s more narrow interpretation of the Second Amendment limiting the right to bear arms to that of being within a militia both a familiar and reasonable one. However, Oregonians should not forget such an argument is merely academic for them. Article I, Section 27, of the Oregon Constitution states: “The people shall have the right to bear arms for the defense OF THEMSELVES...” (emphasis added). In Oregon, the Constitutional right to own firearms is much broader than it is in the U.S. Constitution. That being said, it in no way restricts reasonable regulation such as background checks or magazine capacity limits. See LETTERS on page 16 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Sunny Mostly sunny Partly sunny Mostly cloudy 66/33 59/27 62/31 65/32 61/35 61/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. 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Rachel Marsden American Voices PARIS—One of the most common questions that I’m asked these days is whether U.S. President Barack Obama is a brilliant bamboozler or just a bum- bler. Some people are utterly convinced that the chaos in the Middle East was actually a brilliant ploy by Obama to encourage mayhem in pur- suit of victorious ends. How can one tell if this is really the case? Well, let’s hear from Obama himself. “When I came into office, Ukraine was governed by a corrupt ruler who was a stooge of Mr. Putin,” Obama said in an interview that aired recently on the CBS show “60 Minutes.” “Syria was Russia’s only ally in the region. And today, rather than being able to count on their support and maintain the base they had in Syria, which they’ve had for a long time, Mr. Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally.” All right, so we’re sup- posed to believe that Obama is a strategic genius and that everything is unfolding according to plan. Except that it’s possible to confuse the heck out of your adver- sary and still not beat him. It would be easier to swallow Obama’s advo- cacy of his own brilliance if Europe and the West weren’t going to be support- ing Ukraine for the foresee- able future, with many of the anticipated business gains for the West yet to material- ize. Worse, Ukraine has now lost its resource-rich region of Crimea to Russia as a result of the shake-up. In the Middle East, Russia has positioned itself as the can-do nation capable of cleaning up America’s mess, which all started with U.S. support for the so- called “Syrian rebels” — which Obama admits in the same interview to being an experiment gone wrong. Legendary military strat- egist Carl von Clausewitz analyzed the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th cen- tury and developed theo- ries on the use of deliber- ate tactical confusion in warfare. Such strategy can also be practiced inadver- tently by incompetents, with unfortunate results. One can only tell the difference in retrospect. Members of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s administration were expert practitioners of controlled chaos. The U.S. govern- ment discreetly facilitated the sale of weapons to Iran to secure the release of American hostages held in Iran, and used money from the weapons sales to fund the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua. The Reagan administration also quietly backed the local Islamic fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Following the bounc- ing ball wasn’t easy with Reagan. His objective was the defeat of communism worldwide, and it was fun- damentally achieved. Several French presi- dents have also been quintessential practitio- ners of tactical fog of war. Socialist President Francois Mitterrand had everyone believing that he was a com- munist sympathizer — until he did a volte-face toward a Reaganesque economic plan while also dropping a list of communist spies into Reagan’s lap. Also under Mitterrand, while overtly supporting Britain during the Falklands War, a French team working for Dassault — “a company 51 percent owned by the French gov- ernment”—was also work- ing for Argentina, according to the BBC. Intelligence col- lection and influence behind enemy lines, or hedging bets on the outcome of a con- flict? Either way, it worked out for France. Next came French President Jacques Chirac, who was so successful at practicing tactical confusion that some people probably believed this center-right leader was a leftist. While reducing nuclear weapons, he ramped up nuclear testing in French Polynesia. History has ultimately judged all of these leaders’ strategies. So regardless of how the White House may try to spin recent events, it’s still too early to tell whether Obama is a Machiavellian fog machine or just suffering from brain fog. © 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.