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ForsythOpinion This others. opinions may is not a Signed reflect page of the of columns writers our opinion views. and and — artists, ours, cartoons yours and are they and the
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Remember
the warriors
this
We sometimes have a
difficult time in this coun¬
try separating the conflict
of w ar w ith the politics of
w ar. In a way, Quit's a
goxl tiling because it
means we have the free¬
dom to express our per¬
sonal opinions about the
political decisions that
result in American men
and women being sent off
to battle, as opposed to
other countries where
such dissent not only is
not allow ed but can prov e
to be deadly.
The downside to the
national discourse on the
v alidity of armed military
conflict is that we some¬
times apply to our nation's
wamors our personal
opinions about the causes
for which they fight. Thus
an unpopular war, like
Vietnam, results in tainted
perspectives about the sol¬
diers who fight it.
Thai’s a sad reality , and
one that deserves inspec¬
tion dunng the Memorial
Day holiday
Memorial Day should
be about recognizing and
appreciating the sacrifices
made by men and women
throughout the natKxi's
history who were willing
to put their lives on the
line in supptxt of the ide¬
als fix which their country
stands.
Not every soldier who
died in the nation’s con
fiicts, from the American
Revolutkxi to the fighting
of terrorists in
Afghanistan, necessarily
agreed with the political
deciskxis that put them
there But they put then
lives on the line amethe
less, because service to the
country meant doing just
that.
And there have been no
shrxtage of oppixtunities
for American soldiers to
They hover as a cloud
of w itnesses above this ( v
•
Nation % f w
Hems Want Bwticr /
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When lawmakers are out of touch, it isn’t just their age
When Sen Richard
Lugar. R Ind.. lost the
GOP primary to challeng¬
er Richard Mourdock this
month, Beltway types
saw the voters' verdict as
a victory for the tea party
and a defeat for the kind
of Republican who could
work across the aisle. 1
think Lugar. 80. lost
because he is out of touch
with Indiana He started
the primary registered to
vote at an Indiana home
he had sold in 1977 The
Lugars have resided in
Virginia ever since. Lugar
had been working in
Washington fix so long
that he didn’t realize he
needed lo keep up at least
the appearance of being a
Hoosier.
No doubt, Lugar s fate
sent a chill through the
Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 210 Gumming, GA 30028; tax it to (770) 889-6017; or e-mail it to editor#tbrsythnews.com.
die in protection of the
principles far which the
country stands.
The guns of the
American Revolution
were silent but lor a tew
decades when the War of
1812 set them off again.
The Mexican War was
brief ;ind short on casual¬
ties, but many of those
same ctxnhatanls squared
off in the Cjyil War, our
bloodiest war to dale, a
dozen years Liter
'The War to End All
Wars." as the Great War of
1914-18 was called, in fact
did not end all wars. It
indirectly led to World
Warll.
Korea’s "police action"
begat a similar trudge
through Vietnam a decade
later And our foray to
expel Saddam thxn
Kuwait in 1991 only
delayed a final push to
oust him from power.
Indeed, it seems that
e\vry few years, same
rogue nation decides to
flex its muscles and invade
its smaller neighbors,
spurring the world's other
powers to act. The cycle
never ends
We can debate forever
the politics of war. but we
should stand united in rec¬
ognition and appreciatKXi
of the warriors them¬
selves.
That is the message this
Memorial Day. Those
who gaw their lives for an
ideal have set standards
fix hoax and pervxul
integrity that mast of us
can only hope to emulate
As you stand around the
gnll this holiday weekend
pause to say thanks to
those whose sacrifice
made possible the stan¬
dard of liv ing you enjoy. It
is imprxtanl to remember
the warriors rather than the
wars
DEBRA SAUNDERS
Columnist
spine of Rep Pete Stark,
D-C’alif Like Lugar,
Stark, 80, owns one home
— not in California but in
Maryland.
There arc 12 octogenar¬
ians in the House of
Representatives. I thought
of Lugar when I saw a
tweet by the Daily Kos
Elections folks that
announced that six of
them Reps Ralph
Hall. R-Tcxas; Roscoc
Bartlett. R Md.; John
Conyers. D-Mich ;
Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y;
Charles Rangel, D-N.Y;
It tolls
FOR THEE • •t
MEMORIAL
DAY 2012
%7 a
o;
• I
'P$h>€LL<T) -2^/2
Obama White House loves secrecy
By Glann Garvin
McClatchy Newspapers
There were no cameras around to record w hether
President Obama was winking when, on his first full
day in office, he signed an executive order and two
presidential memorandums declaring that "every
agency and department should know that this admin¬
istration stands on the side not of those who seek to
w ithhnld information, but (hose who seek to make it
known”
But surely he must have been. No White House in
my lifetime — not even that of the infamously secre¬
tive Richard Nixon — has been more of an attack
dog w hen it comes to preserving governmental
secrecy.
Nixon unsuccessfully tried to put Daniel Ellsberg.
who leaked the Pentagon Papers, in jail But
Obama's administration has filed criminal cases
against at least six current or former govcmmeni
employees accused of leaking classified information
to reporters.
leaking classified information sounds senous.
unless you know how promiscuously Obama's
administration slaps the words "top secret" on stuff:
for instance, the Justice Department memorandum
offering the legal justification fix ihc While House's
decision to kill the Amcrican-hom radical Muslim
clenc Anwar al-Awlaki in his hiding place in Yemen.
We re not talking about a cable explaining how the
government knew where Awlaki was hiding ix who
helped find him 'Hus document is a collection of
arguments about musty U S. Supreme Court deci¬
sions invoicing Fourth and Fifth Amendment cases
The only thing that might be damaged by its release
is the reputation of the lawyers who wrote it. and the
White House they work for
Protecting the reputation of government officials,
in fact, seems to he an emerging theme of the Obama
administration's policy on classified data The gov¬
ernment was shamelessly open about its motives
when it refused to release a 31 -year-old CIA history
of the Bay of Pigs invasion, telling a federal judge
that the document was “a polemic of recriminations
against CIA officers who later criticized the opera¬
tion."
Ihc government couldn't argue that the history
would reveal national security secrets, because it
doesn't contain any It's the final book in a five-vol¬
ume study of the disastrous 1961 ClA-backcd inva¬
sion of Cuba. The author. CIA historian Jack
Pfeiffer, purposefully kepi all classified information
out of the last two volumes of the study so he could
use them as the backbone of a general audience his¬
tory of the Bay of Pigs that he planned to write after
hts retirement
and Stark — “could lose."
One. Rep Dale Kildec,
D Mich , is retiring
Does age matter? By
itself. I'd say no —
although my 81 year old
father say s that all things
being equal, he wouldn't
vote for someone his age
Rep Elton Gallcgly.
R Calif , is retiring at 68.
young enough, he said, to
"still have a life after¬
ward." He believes the
answer varies by individ¬
ual: some octogenarians
are "alert, committed
(andi physically and
mentally able to do the
job." He named ffall and
Conyers as examples
Others, he said, "have
stayed too long."
Eric Sterling, president
of the Criminal Justice
Policy Foundation, was
an attorney for the House
Judiciary Committee.
He thinks the dividing
line is whether members
think lhal they serve you
or that “they're entitled to
the office.”
In the list of octomem
hers, a lew names do not
do ihc institution proud.
Conyers sal hack while
his ix-iroit politician wife
sought a taxpayer f unded
attorney because she
w as indigent to appeal
her plea bargain in a fed
cral bribery case. He was
earning $174,000 a year
In 2010. the House cen
sured Rangel for I I
l.thics Committee viola
lions One instance
involved Rangel’s push
for Sti million in car
marks for a Rangel
Center fix Public Service.
The CIA, however, balked at his plan and battled
him in court for years to keep the entire study secret.
After Pfeiffer died of a stroke, the National Security
Archive — a Washington-based research center —
took up the legal fight. And, inch by inch, it has beat¬
en the CIA back. The first four volumes of the histo¬
ry, including the three based on actual classified doc¬
uments, have all been declassified.
Bui the CIA remains adamant about the fifth vol¬
ume. and earlier this month got a federal judge to
agree that it should remain secret rather than “risk
public release of inaccurate historical information.”
t As opposed, 1 guess, to providing "inaccurate infor¬
mation'' — that is. lies — about current policy,
which American governments do on a regular basis
w ithout judicial interference.)
You might think that if the CIA is still fighting a
scorched-earth battle to keep this study locked up
three decades later, it must contain some truly lurid
secrets, of murders or torture or ghastly secret weap¬
ons. You would almost certainly be wrong. Though
the contents of the fifth volume remain secret,
enough genera] information has emerged during all
the legal infighting that we know the general out¬
lines.
It's a hunch of intergovernmental backbiting
between the Kennedy White House and the CIA over
who, exactly, was most to blame for the Bay of Pigs.
Was it John F. Kennedy and his braintrust. who kepi
chipping aw ay at the level of U S. support for the
Cuban exiles who were to cany out the invasion? Or
the CIA, for lousy execution of a plan that wasn't
very good to begin with?
Peter Kombluh. a senior analyst at the National
Security Archive, thinks the CIA is too embarrassed
lo release the report because everybody will see what
a petty little character assassin its author Pfeiffer
was. I disagree. I think the CIA is embarrassed
because the report w ill show that some of its top offi¬
cials were smarmy careerists willing to turn on their
own colleagues in order to kiss up to the Kennedy
White House.
But it doesn't matter which of us is right. Hither
way, secrecy is being invoked not to protect U S.
national security but the reputations of the people
charged with carrying it out. And that’s not only
w rong hut absurd, 51 years after the Bay of Pigs
when almost everybody who was involved is dead
Somebody need 1 - to remind President Obama that he
issued an executive order declaring lhal “no informa¬
tion shall remain classified indefinitely" And then
Obama needs to remind the CIA
Glenn Garvin is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald
Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132 You may e-mail him: ggarvin®
miamiherald.com
Hasn’t Rangel done
enough public service 7
Stark’s uncivil remarks
he called one col¬
league a “w hore," another
a "fruitcake" have
made him a staple in
Esquire's “10 Worst .
Members of Congress"
list He is so problematic
that when ethics prob
lems forced Rangel to
step down as House Ways
and Means Committee
chairman. House Denis
ignored their seniority
system when replacing
him and passed over
Stark
Stark didn't look par
ticularly in touch when,
at a San Francisco
Chronicle editorial board
meeting, he erroneously
accused me of giving
money lo an opponent.
Sterling observes that
w hen senior members
walk the halls, all they
hear is “yes. Mr
Chairman." They ire
“swaddled in adoration
everywhere that they go
ll\ intoxicating. I think n
can be as addictive as
cocaine.
Rangel and Stark got
hooked on privilege a
long time ago. T hey were
embarrassments to the
House long before they
turned 80. They didn't
much care, and neither
did their constituents. But
eventually, even a sense
of entitlement can get
old
Debra J Saunders is a
nationally syndicated col¬
umnist. You may e-mail her:
dsaunders®sfchromcle