Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, August 24, 2017
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Still waiting for
better trade deals
Reporters at Politico recently
election, the U.S. was destined to
published an analysis that showed
reject TPP in its present form.
our 11 former partners in the Trans-
Following through on his
Pacific Partnership are involved
campaign promise, President Trump
in 27 separate negotiations with
withdrew from the accord on Jan.
each other, with major international
23.
trading blocs and regional
Among the other parties in the
powerhouses such
pact there are
as China.
differing opinions as
It reports that
to what TPP means
The TPP was
seven deals that
without the United
seen by many States. Shinzo
impact U.S. farmers
have been signed
Abe, Japan’s prime
agricultural
since the Trump
minister, says the
administration
deal is meaningless
groups as a
pulled the United
the U.S.
boon — now 11 without
States out of TPP.
Nevertheless,
The TPP was seen
our trading partners
of our former
by many, but not
around the Pacific
partners are
all, U.S. agricultural
Rim aren’t wasting
groups as a boon.
time. There are a
moving on
It included the
host of bilateral
without us.
U.S. and 11 other
and multilateral
countries — Japan,
discussions in the
Canada, Mexico,
works. China,
Australia, Vietnam, Chile, Malaysia, Trump’s campaign nemesis, is trying
Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and
to make deals with our trading
Brunei Darussalam. Japan, Mexico
partners.
and Canada are among the biggest
Throughout the campaign, and
trade partners for U.S. agriculture.
since taking office, Trump said
he’d replace the 12-party pact with
Negotiations on the pact began
a series of bilateral trade deals that
in 2008 under President George W.
Bush. A deal was reached in October would bring jobs and industry back
to the United States. That sounds
of 2015.
President Obama supported
great. When can we expect that to
happen?
the final deal and submitted it to
Farmers and ranchers, a group
Congress for ratification. With an
that largely supported Trump’s
election looming, Republicans and
Democrats in Congress weren’t
election, have a lot riding on foreign
anxious to be pinned down on a deal trade. The U.S. exports $135 billion
that had both support and opposition in agricultural products each year. It
that crossed party lines.
could always be better, but it’s pretty
The pact’s critics included the
great as it is.
It’s hard to say what dumping
Republican and the Democratic
presidential nominees.
TPP and renegotiating the North
Donald Trump said the deal
American Free Trade Agreement
would undermine the U.S. economy. may mean for the economy in
general, and for farmers and
As secretary of state, Hillary
Clinton raved about the deal, calling ranchers in particular.
it the “gold standard” of trade pacts.
But at the moment it’s fair to ask
Candidate Clinton then opposed the
what happens next, and when will
deal during the campaign and vowed it happen? We await a tweet, or any
to oppose it as president.
other appropriate communication,
So without ratification prior to the from the Oval Office.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
YOUR VIEWS
March against racism
sadly necessary in 2017
The recent march against hate in
Pendleton was so bittersweet. On the
one hand, there is still a spectrum of
deplorable beliefs and behaviors that
impact our society. On the other hand,
the march demonstrated the widespread
intolerance in our communities for hate.
Whether we are conservative,
moderate, or liberal in our ideologies,
I strongly believe we share a common
sense of civil decency. In the current
political climate where bad behavior has
become more enabled and prevalent, it
is so important that we demonstrate how
unacceptable hate is. We all have our
ways, and there is no one right way. Either
through community service, how we vote,
contacting elected officials, supporting
efforts for equality, or just in how we
model our behavior to our children and
others, we can all make a difference.
Thanks to all who organized the
march. It is regretful that it needed to
happen, but the strong participation
speaks wonders.
Jeff Blackwood
Pendleton
Media has picked their
side — they’re the Nazis
We used to pledge allegiance to our
flag that ended “with liberty and justice
for all.” When the Hammonds go to
prison for starting fires to save their
ranch from a government that lusted for
their land, their is no more justice in the
land. When Lavoy Finicum is murdered
in cold blood for protesting that sentence
the judge called unconscionable, there is
no justice in the land.
When Judge Navarro denies
defendants the rights of the Constitution
and Bill of Rights to the point of ripping
a defendant off the witness stand, there
is no justice in the land. When Gov.
Brown signs a law forcing taxpayers
to fund illegal alien, partial birth and
sex-selection abortions there is no justice
in the land.
The East Oregonian has challenged
Oregonians to “pick a side, Nazi or
American.” The Nazi party denied
liberty by erasing those they deemed
unworthy. The Nazi party denied justice
to those who opposed their oppression
and they murdered those who opposed
them and the press was silent. Hitler set
himself up as judge, jury and executioner
and the press and media justified the
fascism. Isn’t that what the EO and the
media and press advocate by erasing
everything, violently if necessary, from
our past that offends them?
When Judge Navarro set herself up
as judge, jury and executioner the press
and media, including the EO, has been
silent, they have picked their side. When
Lavoy Finicum was murdered and the
government covered up the injustice, the
press and media have been silent, they
have picked their side.
When Donald Trump exposes the
hypocrisy of the press and media railing
against white fascism while condoning the
racism, censorship and violence of Antifa
and BLM, the press and media incessantly
rails against the president. Why? Because
they have picked their side.
Stuart Dick
Irrigon
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public
issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website.
The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of
private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include
the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not
be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E.
Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
From Kabul to Baghdad,
my bird’s-eye view
B
weeks earlier, during the campaign to
AGHDAD — I just spent eight
retake Mosul, two Iraqi soldiers were
days traveling with the Air
wounded, and hiding from an ISIS
Force to all of its key forward
bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait,
unit inside a building 15 yards away.
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Using laser targeting, the U.S. team
So President Donald Trump’s speech
fired a rocket whose size, direction and
Monday night was very timely for me.
shape were chosen to take down only
It was also unnerving.
the ISIS building and make its walls
It was so full of bombast and
Thomas fall in the opposite direction of the
clichés, so larded with phrases like
Friedman two pinned-down Iraqis. The rocket
“we will break their will,” so lacking
worked as intended, and they were
Comment
in details and, most of all, so lacking
rescued.
in humility in confronting a problem
This is war in Iraq today in a
and a region that has vexed better men for
nutshell.
ages that I still don’t know where he’s going
For years we’ve measured our involvement
— only that he is going there very definitively. in Middle East wars by one pair of indexes
I totally agreed with the president’s
— boots on the ground and killed in action.
remarks that our men and women serving in
Because of that, most Americans are now
the Middle East “deserve to return to a country paying scant attention to Iraq, where our
that is not at war with itself
boots on the ground have
at home.” But the rank
shrunk to a few thousand
hypocrisy of this man —
and where there have been
who has done so much to
just 17 U.S. military deaths
divide us in recent months
since we re-engaged in Iraq
to satisfy only his “base”
to defeat ISIS in 2014.
— using our troops as a
But the real story is
prop to extol the virtues
wings in the air. We are
of national unity made me
involved in a gigantic
sick to my stomach.
military enterprise in Iraq.
It also made me recall
But it’s with massive
a lunch I had last week in
conventional air power
the mess hall at Bagram
married to unconventional
Airfield, near Kabul, with
special forces, who are
Chief Master Sgt. Cory
advising the Iraqi army
Olson from the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing. that is actually doing the ground fighting. This
Olson explained that working in Afghanistan
is making our presence in Iraq much more
he was really disconnected from all the
sustainable for us and for the Iraqis.
political turmoil in America.
Ironically, it might never have happened
And then he told me this story: “I was
had President Barack Obama not withdrawn
talking to this civilian contractor the other day our combat troops from Iraq in 2011, because
who just came back from a couple of weeks’
Iraqis couldn’t agree on a legal formula for
home leave in Dallas. And this guy told me he their staying.
was really relieved to get back to ‘reality’ in
After that, the then-Shiite-led Iraqi
Kabul — because the politics back home was
government began abusing Sunnis, and ISIS
so crazy.”
emerged in response. That forced Iraqis to
You know that U.S. politics has jumped
rethink their relationship with us. A U.S. Air
the rails when a U.S. contractor is relieved
Force special operations officer told me of
to get back from America to his little base in
returning to Iraq in early 2014 and meeting
Afghanistan.
with the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service — the
Anyway, enough of that. Since I can’t
only truly professional, nonsectarian fighting
explain Trump’s Middle East, let me explain
unit then left in the country. The U.S. officer
what I saw here — three things in particular:
had come to ask the CTS what material aid the
I saw a new way of mounting warfare by
U.S. could offer in the fight against ISIS, and
the United States in Iraq. I saw in this new
the CTS commander responded that he didn’t
warfare a strategy that offers at least a
need aid: “We want you,” he said.
glimmer of hope for Iraq, if and when ISIS is
And so Obama began slowly reintroducing
defeated. But, though only a glimpse, I saw in U.S. Special Forces back into Iraq and, for
Afghanistan an eroding stalemate — with all
the first time, sending some into Syria, all
the same issues that have undermined stability in a totally new context. When George W.
there for years: government corruption,
Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam
distrust among Afghans and perfidious
Hussein, we destroyed the government from
interventions by Pakistan and Iran.
the top down. We toppled Saddam’s statue.
The best way for me to explain what’s
And we were advised largely by Iraqi exiles of
new in Iraq is with a scene I watched unfold
dubious legitimacy in local eyes.
Saturday. We were at the joint strike cell in
It became our war, producing iconic
Irbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. This is where multiple pictures of U.S. soldiers kicking down doors
Air Force television feeds come in live from
and pointing guns at cowering women.
drones, U-2s, satellites and U.S. and coalition
Even though ISIS emerged after we left, we
fighter jets. The officers there are coordinating have now returned at the invitation of Iraqis
with Iraqi army combat forces on the ground,
from the bottom up, not exiles — making
and their U.S. military advisers embedded just our presence much more legitimate and
behind the battlefront, to hit ISIS targets as the sustainable for any long fight. Iraqi Sunnis,
Iraqi army begins its push west.
Shiites and Kurds were forced to unify, at
Having retaken Mosul, the Iraqi army is
least minimally, to defeat ISIS, opening new
driving ISIS into the Euphrates River Valley,
possibilities.
where it looks like it will make a last stand.
This is Iraq’s war of liberation. They own
This was the second day of the Iraqis’ thrust
it.
west and they were already meeting resistance
The war in Afghanistan is different. The air
in a small town on the road to ISIS-controlled
power component is there, but U.S. Special
Tal Afar. Several U.S. eyes in the sky were
Forces are still doing too much fighting and
trained on a single-story, flat-roof building,
dying. And Trump talked Monday night like
they will now do more. And we don’t have the
about 30 feet wide, sandwiched between two
larger buildings. Iraqi soldiers crawling toward legitimacy you now feel in Iraq.
Personal security for our Afghan allies is
this building were receiving lots of small-arms
still minimal. I stood on the tarmac at Bagram
fire from inside, stalling their advance about
Airfield and listened as a U.S.-trained Afghan
500 feet away.
pilot explained that the last thing he does
Their U.S. advisers were sending all this
before climbing into the cockpit is call home
information to the strike cell in real time.
to be sure his kids have not been abducted by
Meanwhile, in the strike cell, team members
the Taliban, who know that he works with the
sitting in front of computer screens were
U.S. and have threatened him repeatedly.
calculating exactly how much firepower was
Again, the fact that this pilot is still ready to
required to kill the ISIS fighters and not hurt
fly with the U.S. shows real courage. He wants
any civilians who might be nearby. They did
something different for his country, and he’s
a quick tally of the remaining weapons on
not alone. But is he in the majority? Clearly
the U.S. fighter aircraft in the area — seeing
he’s got neighbors who don’t think that we, or
which had what smart bombs left.
the Afghan government we’re supporting, are
Seconds later a call of “weapon away,
legitimate. Culture trumps strategy.
30 seconds” rang out as an F-15E released
This is going to take ages to fix, and if you
a 500-pound GPS-guided smart bomb. The
fix Afghanistan, well, you fix Afghanistan. So
screen rebroadcasting the F-15E’s targeting
what. If you fix Iraq with a real power-sharing
pod showed the bomb going straight down
accord you create a model that can radiate
through the roof.
out across the Arab world, because Iraq is a
“We have splash,” said one of the
microcosm of the Arab world, with Sunnis,
controllers in a monotone as a huge plume of
Shiites, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians and many
smoke engulfed the video screen. Quickly,
others.
the smoke cleared and the 30-foot-wide
■
building was smoldering rubble — but the two
Thomas Friedman, a New York Times
buildings to the sides were totally intact, so
columnist, was awarded Pulitzer Prizes for
any civilians inside should be unhurt.
international reporting and commentary.
The officer in charge told me that a few
Iraq owns their
war of liberation.
In Afghanistan, it’s
American troops
who are still doing
too much fighting
and dying.