Timely attack on Iran prevents wider war

Editor: Europe worked feverishly to appease Hitler/Germany to avoid a larger war. It did not work. You cannot appease the decided. War was inevitable. Only the terms were negotiable. Turn the page to today. Iran has the same mindset as Germany did pre WWII: make only symbolic concessions and rely on the naive to not notice… to find hope in every meaningless concession.

WWII would have been avoided if the world had enough wisdom to realize that stopping Hitler early would have saved European lives, American lives, and the lives of 6 million Jews. Because of world naiveté, 70 to 85 million people died around the world. Families were erased from the planet. Parents mourned their sons and daughters.

If Iran gets nuclear weapons, the world would suffer several times that number. Now was the time to strike, not appease. For those who say that if we forget history, we are doomed to repeat it, well, American leadership listened to history and took action to never repeat it.

Action in Iran will save hundreds of millions of lives in the long term. Cities and countries will be spared the wrath of bombs from afar. All it will cost us is less blood of my brothers in arms, temporary gas price increases, political capital and the mindless ramblings of a TDS-infested Democratic Party. That is a good deal.

Sorry if I offend, but someone had to amplify the truth.

— Paul Lott, Wilkes-Barre

Has Trump gone soft?

Editor: Remember those halcyon days when Cabinet members were fired unceremoniously without so much as a fair thee well? And then they were gone, no fancy title, no no-show job for them, they were exiled to Siberia with a tweet lashing about their incompetence and stupidity. It was great social media fun to denigrate those ingrates. That is how it was in the first Trump administration. Remember? When proposed Cabinet members had more than a trace amount of qualifications for the job, they were capable of independent thought and their TV presence and social media chops were less a factor. Hard to remember, it does seem so long ago. With this first dismissal, things are different now with the second Trump administration. It is like Little Leaguers getting a participation trophy, no need to feel bad about a job poorly done.

So, it’s hats off to Kristi Noem and best of luck as the newly appointed special envoy for the Shield of the Americas — how’s that for eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in government spending? I can always dream there is a gold-plated sinecure of some type waiting for Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi and Robert Kennedy Jr.

— James Baker, Glenburn Twp.

Patients over profits

Editor: Most of the discussion about health care revolves around prescription drug costs and the price of health insurance. There is very little discussion about how good or bad that medical care is , despite dismal results for the longevity and health of the American population.

At the same time, billionaire corporations have been buying up doctors offices, hospitals and health insurers. Doctors working for those corporate bosses are under increasing pressure in ways that undercut their ability to provide the best care for their patients.

Prescription costs are high, but we should also ask why there are so many patients stuck for a lifetime on drugs like statins and blood pressure medications. I have noticed that doctors now use computer programs to determine who is a “candidate” for those drugs. Those programs (developed by whom?) regularly get revised to catch more and more seniors in the net. Not enough attention is paid to the harm that prescription drugs cause. But people have been conditioned not to question what the doctor recommends.

Health care has evolved over the centuries, but it seems that for the last 40 or 50 years we have been stuck pushing the same prescription drugs and not helping people find alternative solutions. That suits the drug companies and insurance giants fine.

Several Senators have introduced a bill called “Patients over Profits” which would limit the ability of the billionaire companies from buying up health care providers. That is one step in the right direction. Doctors need more independence, and patients also need to be able to find doctors they can trust.

— Lilly Hirsch, Pottsville

Death toll climbing in Trump second term

Editor: President Trump and his administration, the Republicans in Congress and many of his cabinet heads, who are also unqualified for the job, have blood on their hands.

They got rid of USAID by denying food and medicine so thousands have died. Hegseth has killed more than 150 by bombing boats with no evidence of running drugs. ICE has killed 2 Americans in Minnesota. Measles was considered eradicated years ago but RFK Jr. has brought it back with a vengeance with his anti-vaccine policies. Polio might even come back along with all the diseases vaccines took care of as long as all children were vaccinated in order to go to school. He isn’t even recommending flu and covid shots.

Now Trump started a war with Iran with no good reason because he wants to be king of the world. Doesn’t care seven soldiers were killed and probably more will be.

The Republicans in Congress don’t want to stop him. They know they can’t win a fair election, so are counting on Trump to federalize the elections, try to get rid of the Voting Rights Act and pass the Save Act so that thousands of married women won’t be able to vote because they can’t afford a passport or find their birth certificates to prove they are citizens. All this undermining the Constitution.

The Democrats have to win by a landslide so Trump can’t say it was a fraud election.

— Fern Oliveri, Carbondale

Gouging gas stations take advantage of war

Editor: Not that it’s a surprise but, as expected the gas station owners in the area immediately jacked up their gas prices when the war stated even though they were still selling gas that they had received well before the war started and oil prices went through the roof. They’ll do whatever it takes to take advantage of everyday consumers.

— Paul Cinquegrani, Dunmore

Out-of control administration wages war on Iran

Editor: The Middle East is aflame again. Trump and Netanyahu have loosed the dogs of war. It’s easy to see what Israel gains from the destruction in Iran. Iran has been one of its greatest enemies. Much harder is to determine exactly what the U.S. does.

Iran has been a vexation for our nation but not on the level warranting this level of reaction. And Trump hinted at perhaps there might be American boots on the ground in the future. How many who’ve had their sons or daughters seriously affected by the multiple seemingly unending wars in that region, voted against Harris in the last election out of fear of the U.S. involvement in future conflicts? What we have is an executive branch that is out of control, operating at the whim and vanity of one man. It’s more than past time that Congress reassert itself as an equal portion of our three-branch government and end the madness. Sadly our Congressional delegates are not up to the task. They go out of their way to avoid any conflict with the White House.

We all know deep in our hearts that this war is not going to end well or quickly. The best we will be able to do is clean up the mess when it’s finally over. And hope that we still have credibility and allies by that time.

— Tom Mielczarek, Madisonville

Double standard applied to Trump Iran attack

Editor: “Trump violated the Constitution by going to war without consent from Congress” claims the Philadelphia Inquirer in your paper. (“Trump’s war of choice makes mockery of Constitution,” March 9). And the rest of the editorial is filled with political rhetoric against Trump’s war plan. It seems the last time Congress approved a war was World War II. President Johnson waged war for years in Vietnam without congressional approval. President Obama waged a war to depose a dictator in Libya without congressional approval. Curiously, much like President Trump is waging war to depose an anti-American dictator regime in Iran.

Consider, the US Constitution does not provide a specific definition of a justified war. Paragraph # 2309 of the Catholic Catechism has conditions for a justified war. Citing one aspect, “…there must be serious prospects of success; the use of arms must not produce evil and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.” For decades, Iran has clearly been the greatest evil to America, and Israel.

Iran and its “Axis of Resistance” hate America. Remember Iran’s perennial “Death to America” chant? Iran and their proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis) intend to “eliminate” the infidels of Israel. If Iran and their proxies laid down their weapons, there would be peace. If Israel laid down its weapons, Iran and their proxies would exterminate the entire Jewish population of Israel. So, who needs to be “eliminated?”

— Daniel Pryor, Belvidere, New Jersey

Region might benefit from alleged ‘carpetbagging’

Editor: The letter “‘Carpetbagger’ Cognetti doesn’t reflect region” (Feb 19) rejects as a congressperson for PA-08 the more cosmopolitan (West Coast upbringing, employment in Asia and D.C., Harvard advanced degree) candidate, because: “We do things differently in NEPA.” And the consequences of that are that the area is depressed, or at least distressed.

Poverty is high; job skills are low. It’s aging; the promising young depart for better opportunity. There are pockets of high crime and drug use. Health indicators are poor. Its metropolitan area is regarded as the most miserable in the nation. It may be time for a change. Parochial Rob is good at one thing — looking out for numero uno. Almost a year ago he dumped a bunch of stocks in firms handling half the country’s Medicaid claims just before voting for Trump’s BBB, which knocked hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians off coverage, compounding that obscenity by advocating that members of Congress should not be involved in stock market trading.

— Michele P. Brown, New York, New York, and Pike County