Libyan intervention is a fiasco for U.S. Re: “More surprises likely in Libya,” April 25
Steve Chapman said it all: It is not too early to declare our intervention in Libya a failure. With our budget deficit skyrocketing and the price of oil inching to $5 per gallon, the French-initiated military intervention in Libya is a fiasco.
The rag-tag militias using NATO as their Air Force would make good terrorists, but are completely inept to seize power by themselves. Moammar Gadhafi, who is still popular, paid his blood money and stood by the West against al Qaeda. Now we want him out and use a legal fiction to portray these armed thugs as “freedom fighters” and “innocent civilians,” while innocent civilians in West Libya become “Gadhafi loyalists.”
After wasting $1 billion with no victory in sight, Americans will suffer the consequences of the Obama administration’s indecision and miscalculation in an obvious tribal war, while NATO struggles divided, discredited and broke. We opened a Pandora’s box, which Tehran and al Qaeda are all too willing to exploit.
Michael Gloukhov
Fairfax
Birth certificate controversy is not over
Re: “Trump’s political charades ruining Republican brand,” April 25
While I’ll be the last to defend Donald Trump, Linda Chavez needs to do her research as far as the “birther” controversy is concerned. There are some serious questions regarding President Obama’s birth and history, as well documented by Thomas Lifson and Jack Cashill at American Thinker.
First, the Hawaiian “Certification of Live Birth” is not a full birth certificate, and in fact may be obtained for an adopted child who was not born in Hawaii. (See Hawaiian Statute 338-17.8, which is too long to reprint here).
Secondly, even if Obama was born in Hawaii, there may be serious issues about his past, possibly even his actual parentage, raised by the actual birth certificate which, among other things, lists his father and his religion.
Paul Blase
Alexandria
ICE gives Montgomery County early gift
Re: “Feds force MontCo to join deportation program,” April 23
Like Councilwoman Nancy Navarro, I too was shocked by the announcement that Montgomery County would join the Secure Communities program in September — two years ahead of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 2013 nationwide target date. This is very good news for citizens concerned about public safety, and ends the police and correction departments’ half-hearted cooperation with ICE.
Rather than faxing a stunted list of names of immigrants who admit they are foreign born, they will have to provide the feds with a set of electronic fingerprints for all inmates. Fingerprints are a nonpartisan, nondiscriminatory tool to accurately identify wanted criminals and swiftly remove them from our jails and streets.
The real shocking news is that Navarro, a former CASA of Maryland official who led the push for in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants, is sponsoring a resolution opposing Secure Communities because of “real concerns with racial profiling and [that it] could alienate immigrants.” Montgomery voters should use better screening methods when electing officials with such radical backgrounds.
Brad Botwin
Director, HelpSaveMaryland.com
Rockville
