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♦ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2006 4A Muuaton ©mly .IJmtrttal OPINION Daniel F. Evans President Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Group Marketing Don Moncrief Managing Editor Letters to the Edttor Troop support vital I read the attached letter (see below) on anymarine. com, and some of the letters are heart tugging, to say the least. The letter below was sent to anymarine.com, and I copied it just to let Americans know how important their support is for our troops. I would encourage everyone to send a card or letter to any of our troops in harm’s way. It means more than we realize. Julia Germani, Warner Robins “It’s been 11 months now, and we have one more to go in this year-long deployment. “For the team, the year 2006 has been a very, very rewarding one for us. We have had many challenges and hardships advising, mentoring, and fighting alongside our Iraqi battalion against enemy insurgents. Despite our struggles and surprises, we’ve overcome insurmountable odds in building an Iraqi Army. “It’s been a long year filled with endless days of hard work and perseverance. Many times, we’d question our efforts and the progress of the Iraqis. Reflecting back on how far we’ve come, we indeed have kept to our mission in training and men toring a young army by continuously developing their potential. “In January, we started out with 11 American advisors and 360 Iraqi soldiers. To date, we’ve grown as a bat talion to 21 advisors and 532 soldiers. Not only have we built our strength with numbers, but relationships with the local people have also grown. “The people of Iraqi thrive on relationships, so it’s been a great milestone that the locals have trust and confidence in their army. Slowly are the Iraqi soldiers becoming more and more proud in serving their country. Their army pays them well, and money has b£en the key to their recruitment and service. Yet, this seems to be changing over time. It’s more than just getting paid: It’s about the Iraqi soldiers serving with honor, and the people believing in their army. When the team first came together in December of 2005. We were told the team was all we had to get through this deployment. Little did we know that our service came with tremendous support and infinite bless ings from our fellow Americans. We are still amazed with the many letters, cards, and care packages (http://www. treatanysoldier.com/CarePackages.cfm) we are getting. Thank you. It’s been mentioned that words could not express how much the team appreciates your thoughtful ness and generosity. Know this, though: We’d get worn out from patrols. We’d get frustrated with training Iraqis (language barrier). We’d complain about the food. We’d hate waking up from inadequate rest. We’d stress during engagements. But.we’d forget about it all when we get your letters, your cards, and your care packages. “We can’t thank you enough for all the smiles you’ve put on our faces. You’ve lifted our spirits, regardless of all the trials associated with our deployment. Your continued support has truly added to a great and rewarding experi ence for all of us. America will always be our strength and our inspiration. Thank you for sharing our pride as Americans.” Semper Fidelis, Military Transition Team 8 Capt. Franklin Sablan Impact fees needed The letter by Mr. (Pete) Stokes (in Wednesday’s Houston Daily Journal ), a long-time local developer, explained well how the infrastructure required for new develop ments is funded. The initial cost of the new streets, drainage, water and sewer lines, et cetera is paid for by the developer. This cost is immediately passed on to those who purchase the new houses; the net result is that the developer pays nothing for this. However, the cost to support this new infrastructure, including additional police, fire departments, schools and other government services, is borne by all the citizens of the county. When growth is managed, property taxes alone can generally support these costs. But when the growth is unmanaged, these infrastructure costs require additional revenues - such as SPLOSTs. These are also borne by the entire county. It seems fair that those directly creating this additional need should contribute some additional revenue themselves. Impact fees can provide this; they are currently being implemented in Perry. Where does the impact fall? Not on the developer. He simply passes it along to the new homeowner like any new infrastructure cost. Dan Knauer, Warner Robins Signals and headlights needed in rain I am always puzzled why Georgians don’t use their directional signals or have their headlights on when it rains. State laws require their use but some of us would rather risk being involved in an accident than using our directional signals or headlights. How can some not use their headlights in a torrential downpour when visibility is almost nonexistent? Don’t these drivers notice the lights of other cars coming toward them? Why do most have to start talking on their phones as soon as they start driving? We are taught to keep both hands on the steering wheel yet too many don’t. Mandatory state vehicle inspections annually would make us all safer! Every European nation has these inspections. Only 500 British citizens die through the misuse of guns each year versus 30,000 here. Wonder why? Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins Audrey Evans Vice President Marketing!Advertising Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus Christmas is a great time for reflection We will be celebrating Christmas in a couple of days. Children will be excited and over whelmed with gifts, which some of them will appreciate. Adults will exhale a sigh of relief. It’s all over for another year. Hooray! We are living in a time of excesses. We have too much. We appreciate too little. Never before in history have so many people had so much to be grateful for ... and probably never before have so many people been less thankful. Joy to the World, the song tells us. It would be nice if all of us exuded joy and good will. In our country and through out the world there is too much anger, too much hatred. As a nation, we Americans have become accustomed to so much that it has become a habit, without realizing it, to complain, even about our good fortune. We live in a land of milk and honey and we have our freedom and we can go about anywhere we wish safely. Shame on all of us. We are fortunate to be alive at this time in history. We are fortunate to live in this country. Hasn’t it been said 2006: The year of perpetual outrage It began with the Danish cartoons. It ended with the flying imams. Two thousand six was a banner year for the Religion of Perpetual Outrage. Twelve turbulent months of fist-waving, embassy-burning, fatwa issuing mayhem, intimidation, and murder resounded with the ululations of the aggrieved. All this in the name of defending Islam from “insult.” Let’s review. In late January, masked Palestinian gunmen took over a European Union office in Gaza City to protest the publi cation of a dozen cartoons about Islam, Mohammed, and self-censorship in the Danish newspaper the Jyllands- Posten. They stormed the building, burned Danish flags, and spearheaded an international boycott of Denmark’s products across the Muslim world. The rage was manufactured pretext. The cartoons had been published four months earlier with little fanfare. It wasn’t until a delegation of instigating Danish imams toured Egypt with the cartoons - plus a few inflammatory fake ones, including an old image of a French hog-calling contest participant deceptively portrayed as “anti-Muslim” - that the fire started burning. Think the mainstream media will remember that? Not likely. They fell for the ruse and were slow to acknowledge it after American bloggers and Danish televi sion exposed the scheme. What was really behind Cartoon Rage? Muslim bullies were attempt ing to pressure Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency’s decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for continuing with its nuclear research program. The chairmanship of the council was pass ing to Denmark at the time. Alas, Western journalists, analysts, and apologists were too clouded by their cowardice and conciliation to see through the smoke. More than 800 were injured in the ensuing riots, and 130 people paid with their lives. The innocents included Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro, who was shot to death in Turkey on Feb. 5, by a OPINION many times that, except for the Grace of God, we might have been born in one of the countries in the world plagued with illnesses, fighting and poverty? I grew up what used to be called “dirt poor.” I appreciate everything and every opportunity I have had. I was able to earn a living doing the kind of work I enjoyed and was rewarded for my hard work. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve so much. In other words, as we close in on Christmas, I am look ing back on how good life has been and leave it to others to look ahead for bounties under the Christmas tree. Those of us as old as I am have known privation and hunger. We have known what it was like to do without. But time has dimmed those memories. teenage boy enraged by the illustra tions. The Muslim gunman shouted, “Allahu Akbar!” as he murdered Father Santoro while the priest knelt praying in his church. Several brave moderate Muslim editors who stood up to the madness were jailed, fined, and con victed of crimes related to insulting Islam. The Danish cartoonists remain in hiding. The world soon tired of Cartoon Rage, but the “peaceful” Muslim rag ers were just warming up. They found excuses large and small to riot and threaten Western infidels. In India, they protested the magazine publica tion of a picture of a playing card show ing an image of Mecca and also burned Valentine’s Day cards. An insult to Islam, they screamed. In Spain, they protested a Madrid store for selling a postcard with a mosque on it with the words “We slept here.” An insult to Islam, they protested. In Pakistan, they burned down a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, a Pizza Hut, and toppled Ronald McDonald. In Jakarta, they smashed the offices of Playboy magazine. You know why. In June, the trial against lioness journalist Oriana Fallaci for insulting Islam commenced in Bergamo, Italy. She had been charged by profession al Muslim rager Adel Smith of the Muslim Union of Italy of “vilipendio” - vilifying Islam - in her post-9/11 books slamming jihad. A judge had refused to throw out the case. She faced a pile of death threats and accusations of “Islamophobia” for speaking truth to Islamo-power. Fallaci’s death from cancer dur ing the fifth anniversary week of the September 11 terrorist attacks pre empted the trial in Italy, but her pass- m Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox.net Jant * |H Michelle Malkin Columnist malkin@comcast.net HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL We look around now and wonder how it could have been so different a little more than half a century ago. I guess that I am fortunate because my personal “wants” are not many. Important things to me are family, friends and work (before retirement). If you are fortunate to have the best of these, what else really matters? It is easy to complain.. .to look around and feel that things could be better. Maybe they could. Everything is relative, though. Each of us has a place in the scheme of things...and by the time we are grown we should pretty well know our capabilities and our potential. It is important to adjust and find yourself and your place in the scheme of things. It took a long time for me to find mine. It brought satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment when I did here in Houston County. And the question all of us living in this great country should ask our selves: “What did we ever do to deserve so much?” Aren’t we lucky? Merry Christmas! ing did nothing to preempt the eternal rage of the perpetually outraged. The day she died, the grievance mongers were shaking their fists and calling for the head of Pope Benedict XVI for his speech that made reference to a 14th-Century conversation touch ing on holy war and jihad. For engag ing in open, honest intellectual and spiritual debate, he was condemned, lit afire in effigy, and targeted anew. The ragers bombed Christian churches in Gaza City and Nablus. They murdered Italian Sister Leonella Sgorbati, an elderly Catholic nun shot in the back by a Somalian jihadist stoked by Pope Rage. “Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim,” a Somalian cleric had declared. The Vatican made nice with Muslim leaders. New outrages are always in bloom. In late September, it was a Berlin production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” that featured the decapitated head of Mohammed. A week later, it was a banyan tree attacked by Indonesian Muslims who wanted to disprove its mystical powers. A few days after that, it was former British foreign secre tary Jack Straw, who had the audac ity to make the very obvious observa tion that full Muslim veils impede communications between women and Westerners. Offensive! Disturbing! An insult to Islam! Not to be outdone, a delegation of extortionist imams boarded a U.S. Airways flight in Minneapolis in November and tried to manufacture an international human-rights inci dent. They clamored for a boycott and threatened to sue. The good news: The fire did not catch here this time. The bad news: As Oriana Fallaci warned before her death: “The hate for the West swells like a fire fed by the wind. The clash between us and them is not a military one. It is a cultural one, a religious one, and the worst is still to come.” Michelle Malkin is author of “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild.” Her e-mail address is writemalkin@gmail.com.