Letters from Readers – May 9, 2010

GM deliberately tried to deceive Americans Re: “Geithner and GM tell a whopper” editorial, May 3 The Examiner was right to criticize General Motors for falsely claiming in a recent TV ad campaign to have “repaid” — “in full” — what it received from taxpayers. GM’s claim was misleading because it used government bailout money to make this so-called repayment! Moreover, GM “repaid” only $6.7 billion of the $50 billion the government gave it. That’s why the Competitive Enterprise Institute just filed a fraud complaint against GM at the Federal Trade Commission. Since GM recently lost $4.3 billion, it was deceptive for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to claim the sham repayment proves that GM “is on a strong path to viability.” Some buyers have avoided GM cars because of anger over its costly taxpayer bailout or worries that the ailing car company may not be around to service warranties and provide parts. GM’s ads were designed to deceive them. Hans Bader Senior attorney, Competitive Enterprise Institute Washington Why don’t we just hand our nukes to Iran Re: “U.S. says it has 5,113 nuclear warheads,” May 4 Now that we have unilaterally disclosed our arsenal of nuclear weapons and by innuendo the missiles needed to deliver them in an effort to bring Iran to the bargaining table, why don’t we simply turn over our nuclear bombs to that nation as a gesture of good will since President Obama has stated that we shall never use them? Certainly all other tactics have failed, as we have abdicated our position as a superpower to allay the fear of our enemies. The final step would be to supply Iran with the wherewithal not only to destroy our allies but our own non-Muslim nation as well. Nelson Marans Silver Spring Thanks for the international etiquette lesson Re: “How to crack the code of French rudeness,” April 29 I enjoyed reading Meghan Cox Gurdon’s commentary. It was the most intelligent piece of writing I’ve seen in your newspaper. Thank you. Chris Solloway Bethesda