Dear editor:

John,

Let’s revisit “shock and awe”…

What emotions were you feeling as you watched the Twin Towers fall to the ground on Sept. 11? I remember a very united country afterward. Unfortunately most Americans have a short-term memory for too many things.

Hillary, Nancy, Harry, Biden, “Chuck,” John Kerry and other politicians on “both sides of the isle” supported the decision to invade Iraq (on video tape on the floor of Congress) based upon independent and shared military knowledge from the governments of the U.S., the U.K. and Russia.

Did Saddam Hussein have weapons of mass destruction? Yes. There is indisputable photographic evidence he used them on hundreds of thousands of his own citizens buried in mass graves. Have you forgotten about those pictures?

What happened to the weapons of mass destruction? He could have sold them or given them to a neighboring country for “future considerations.” They could have also been destroyed or buried anywhere in Iraq. Iraq is a big country with a lot of sand. Where did we find Saddam Hussein hiding? We found him in a hole in the desert. Ironic isn’t it?
I find it interesting that half of your “comment” is regurgitating Pelosi rhetoric. Words are meaningless. Actions and their consequences are what define a person. There is enough blame over the years for both Democrats and Republicans. I want all incumbents voted out. “Drain the swamp” as Pelosi promised. Speaking about broken promises, what happened to:

• Change we can believe in
• Transparency
• No earmarks
• All negotiations on C-SPAN
• No lobbyists in the White House
• Five days to review all the bills
• Change the way Washington does business (to the “Chicago way?”)
• Bipartisan politics (the only thing bipartisan to the “health bill” was the opposition)

What are your thoughts on:

• “We should pass this bill so we can see what’s in it?”
• “There are no rules, we make them up as we go?”

So you think the federal government can manage healthcare and save money in the process? Their latest “test” was reacting to the H1N1 outbreak. More than 100 million vaccinations were never used and 71 million were wasted (a microcosm of health care). They screwed that up, and you think they can manage the entire health care industry?

FEMA (under Bush II) mismanaged the Rita/Katrina relief. The federal government has had decades to make Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Post Office and Amtrack run successfully and hasn’t. The federal government under any administration has successfully proven that they couldn’t figure their way out of a wet paper bag if they had to. The federal government is a joke.

If the federal government really thinks they can run health care effectively, look at Massachusetts. Costs and demand were both under estimated dramatically. Let the federal and state government fix that system first, and then apply the “lessons learned” on a state by state basis. If they come to the conclusion that it is better left off to “the private sector” than abandon a federal takeover.

Curt Jacobi
Edwardsburg