Republicans acting against security interests
Editor, The Times:
When Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee calling on Congress to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which has resulted in the discharges of otherwise qualified [service] members — 13,000 during the last 17 years — Republicans sided against national security by speaking out against such a repeal. [“Top brass: ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ must go,” page one, Feb. 3.]
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said most service members support the law, when most actually support its repeal. An angry Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reversed his position from more than two years ago. During the fall of 2006, McCain said that if military leaders ever supported repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” he would listen to them and support it’s repeal as well. But yesterday he made it clear he opposes such a repeal.
McCain is facing a strong primary challenge from right-winger J.D. Heyworth. I guess McCain has decided to put re-election, not country, first.
— Robert M. Keenan, Mukilteo
God is dead
The Times’ editorial “The right thing, overdue,” [Opinion, Feb. 3], stated some very important beliefs — if you read between the lines.
What you said is that God and his word, the Bible, no longer have a place in the lives of the people in the United States. It would seem to me that if you were going to take the stand that you took with integrity, you would at least tell your readers explicitly that, in your own opinion, you believe that God no longer has a place in the USA.
— Edwin Holden, Renton