No need to quit, no tax increase and energy

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: June 19, 2008

Why quit when you’ve won?

To the editor:

Well, now the field has been settled and it will be McCain vs. Obama in the fall. That brings us a couple of clear choices. One that I think is very important is the continued prosecution of the war on terror. I don’t like that term, but nothing else seems to describe it better.

Sen. McCain was a proponent of the “surge” tactic in Iraq and Sen. Obama said it would not work and the war was lost. Well, now it appears that the surge has in fact worked well — very well — and the tactics are now being utilized in Afghanistan. Sen. Obama, without bothering to go and see for himself, has both ignored and criticized the leadership that he voted to put in charge, and continues to argue that we are losing and should “end” the war. 

Normally, I’m not fond of using sports metaphors to describe life situations because life is not a game, but in this case I think one would fit for Iraq. It seems to me that we are in overtime of a championship football game. We have the lead, the ball and we are marching down the field. Suddenly, the players look to the sidelines and see the team executives have told the referees that they are tired and this has gone on too long. They quit and order the team to leave the field. I think it’s important to note that the executives are not former players and have no concept of the discipline and effort it takes to put everything you have out to win.

In October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy said, “The cost of freedom is high but one path we will never choose is the path of surrender.” I’m afraid for a lot of Democrats “never” has arrived and they are willing to surrender in Iraq. I worry what they will surrender after that!

The difference is clear: Sen. McCain wants to win and Sen. Obama wants to end (lose) the war in Iraq — but says he wants to win in Afghanistan. Clearly, then he knows there is a difference.

One of the reasons Obama uses is that we will save money by leaving Iraq. How? Most of the cost of the troops is for salary (65 percent) and unless he is going to discharge the soldiers, there won’t be much of a savings. If they go to another base, there will be expenses for training. Probably the biggest savings would be in munitions, which are about 3 percent of the costs.

Some people have argued they don’t know what winning would look like. A long time ago a sergeant told me the difference between winning and losing was, “we are standing in our boots, the other guy is laying in his.” I prefer to be standing.

JOHN BRUNS

To the editor:
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is determined to get his $1 billion tax increase for transportation by hook or by crook. He’s spending money needlessly by calling a special session of the Legislature on June 23. He is determined to get his tax increase. I think he is trying to outdo Mark Warner.

During the last session, Kaine wanted to take money out of the transportation fund and put it in the general fund. In that way, he could start new programs or do anything he wanted to with the money if he could bully the House of Delegates into supporting him.

Thank goodness the House is fiscally responsible.

Kaine lied while campaigning for governor. He said he would not raise taxes and the first thing he did was to propose a tax increase.

People from neighboring states buy gas in Virginia because the tax is lower than in their own states. I hope Kaine doesn’t try to raise our gas tax.

He wants to increase the sales tax on autos each time they are bought. The cost of a decal I bought in May was $10 more than I paid last year, and he wants to increase it another $10. I don’t know how many more taxes there are on the poor old auto. It is burdened with taxes. Today, autos are necessities, not the luxuries they once were.

The governor should realize that now is not the time to raise taxes. Now is the time to cut spending and cut where it hurts least.

If Kaine wants to help those in low income-high unemployment communities, he should put a toll on the interstate highways. Then, people from out of state would help pay for road maintenance and road building. Would Kaine be satisfied with tolls on out-of-state drivers? He changed the bill to exempt out-of-state drivers from paying abusive driver fees. He should have known that was unconstitutional.

I hope our next governor has some business sense as well as common sense.

MARY WELLMAN

To the editor:

Both of the major party presidential candidates are against drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska or drilling for natural gas off our shores. I think if we held back contributions to their campaigns until they changed their minds on this issue, they might get the message. If the policies of the United States are not changed, we may quickly become a third-world country. If the citizens of the United States do not persuade our political leaders to change their minds, we may go broke and be deeply indebted to China.

We have billions of cubic feet of untapped natural gas, which could be used to power autos, trucks and other machinery. And we have huge deposits of oil in Alaska. But our own political leaders are refusing to let us develop these resources. The leaders of Congress will not let this issue come to the floor for a vote. Everyone should be putting pressure on their congressman and senators to let this issue come to a vote. It seems unnatural for us to be building oil refineries in Iraq but not in the United States. There have been no oil refineries built in this country in the past 30 years. We are not preparing well for the future.

I want to take this opportunity to thank U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode for the steadfast support he has given to try to make this energy development possible. We need more people like him representing us. Please write letters, make phone calls or whatever you can do to get the attention of those who are now in office to realize there are alternatives to mortgaging our future to the oil-producing nations.

RONALD A. RESSEL JR.

Martinsville