| Occupy
this
In response to the letter from the man with
three names (“Your View,” Dec. 15), who proudly
displays with the appending to his name of the
third that he probably inherited his money,
who has lately blanketed this paper and The
Des Moines Register with anti-Occupy Wall Street
diatribes, I offer this: If these protesters
are so ineffective, why are you making such
a massive effort to discredit them and why are
police departments taking such extreme measures
to try to silence them? Although you are saying
that this group should be “ignored, laughed
at, ostracized and ultimately forgotten,” they
aren’t and this is driving you insane. So once
again we have to suffer through another one
of your tiresome rants, where name-calling is
supposed to be a substitute for logic and somehow
we are supposed to be impressed by your “power.”
While you identify with the 1 percent, I doubt
they would consider you part of their club.
Get over yourself.
David Thrasher
Des Moines
End aid to Israel
“What if conservatives who preach small government
wake up and realize that our interventionist
foreign policy provides the greatest incentive
to expand the government,” stated Ron Paul before
the U.S. House of Representatives in February
2009.
It baffles me how some conservatives who rail
against the excess and waste of big government
here at home, in particular its uncanny ability
of mismanaging and squandering away our money,
still have this benevolent view of government
when it comes to our meddling abroad. Not only
that, but how can we with a strait face decry
the welfare state (socialism) here at home,
all the while endorsing free handouts to other
nations paid for by our tax dollars?
Foreign aid to Israel is often a popular point
of controversy when discussing our foreign policy.
As is often the case, the media prefers shocking
sound bites rather than critical analyses in
order to shape our opinions on the topic. We
are encouraged to believe in this two-dimensional
worldview that all Israelis love the idea of
America financing their country.
What you may not know is that many prominent
Israelis including Israeli economists Ran Dagoni,
Yoel Bainerman, Alvin Rabushka and the late
Rabbi Meir Kahane, as well as groups including
the Jewish Task Force, the Zionist Freedom Alliance
and the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the Likud
Party have long advocated for an end to U.S.
foreign aid to Israel. These groups insist that
Israel must develop her own economic strength
and move toward more free-market economic reforms
as a means of boosting national prosperity and
strength.
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
has stated that foreign aid may do more harm
than good, and he proposed efforts to wean Israel
off of American military aid payments.
The Jewish Task Force states among its principles
a commitment to: “An immediate end to all U.S.
foreign aid, even to a genuine friend and ally
like Israel, which is harmed rather than helped
by her counterproductive dependency on America’s
addictive welfare handouts.”
So perhaps Congressman Ron Paul does have a
point.
Will Drake
Des Moines |
