It's time to bring the troops home from Iraq

A new strategy has emerged among Republican candidates for president who appeal to the party's huge conservative base. Frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, as well as several lesser candidates, have chosen to hearken back to the Reagan era. Identifying with the man whose name is virtually synonymous with conservatism evidently makes a lot more sense than tying oneself to either George W. Bush or his father.

The current occupant of the White House, of course, is adamant in his continuation of the increasingly unpopular Iraq war. Now four years old with no end in sight, the struggle has already cost 3,200 American lives, wounded over 20,000, and destroyed whatever positive attitude for our nation existed in the Muslim world. Instead of deciding that the U.S. goals have been accomplished and ending the conflict, Mr. Bush is pouring more troops into the fray, even sending some units back for a third tour. No GOP political aspirant wants to be identified with such a record.

I think that any candidate who says forthrightly that it's time to bring the troops home would receive strong support.

Please also visit http://www.jbs.org/node/3235 regarding my concern.

Matt K. Davis Henderson, NV Sharks deserve to live in the Gulf

Dearest Frank,

I'm not a tree hugger, but I am a shark lover. I was bitten by a shark while surfing, but I'm not bitter. The shark was just being a shark, and mistook my foot for a mullet. It was a blacktip about five feet in length and caused a little permanent nerve damage as well as 60 stitches. I have no bad will toward sharks, and will be surfing again as soon as I'm able. I understand the risks of entering the water. I am also an avid fisherman, and have seen many sharks over 10 feet in length. If one of these bit me I would probably not be here to tell about it. THAT DOES NOT GIVE ME THE RIGHT TO KILL ONE OF THEM!!! As someone who greatly enjoys and appreciates nature I understand the risks of entering the water. As a kayaker so should you. To put it into simple terms for you:

Intruder into your home - intruder dies

You intrude into someone else's home - you die

The fishermen were in the shark's home, yet the shark died.

I don't expect to change your view on the subject; it would be like arguing with a wall. Just understand that when you launch your kayak into the water, you are in nature's house, and nature's rules apply. If you can't handle that, then sell your kayak to someone who does, get a rubber ducky bath toy, and enjoy the public pool.

Larry Olson

Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Armed citizens answer to crime

To paraphrase a musical lament of yesteryear: "Where have all the good people gone - gone to the graveyard everyone? - killed by the armed criminals the police protect - by disarming citizens the criminals attack."

Could this become the funeral dirge for our great Christian Civilization of America that our ancestors sacrificed and died for? It very well could in view of the depraved and psychopathic efforts of our bureaucratic defacto commissars and their police lackeys to disarm and persecute Americans who exercise their God-given constitutional right to own and bear firearms to protect themselves and families.

The result is the reducing of our nation to disarmed "sheeple" blindly marching toward the slaughterhouse of the planned Police State. The strategy being employed by our party-line political bosses and police sycophants is to deliberately release criminals into our neighborhoods to create an ever escalating crime rate to justify ever increasing taxation for ever expanding bureaucratic empires to impose their will, not on the perverted criminal element they created, but on us as the disarmed 'citizens' of their planned New World Order.

The glaring example is the forcible government introduction into our neighborhoods of perverted and sexual predators to prey on our children and others as news reports continually indicate. The solution obviously is life in prison for the perpetrators and encouraging citizens to routinely arm themselves and violent crime will drop dramatically instead of escalating as it now is under our present leaders apparently conspiring to bring about empire building, through escalating crime, who care nothing about human life or suffering.

We should see: www.jbs.org (search: gun control) and demand constitutional protection instead of mindless party line voting protecting their fat paychecks.

Ed Nemechek

Landers, Ca

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