LETTERS 05/04/08

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Chances are if all of those conditions were met, there would never be pre-emption. And sorrowfully, I see few in our government capable of participating in this discussion anyway.

Paul Rola

Kansas City

Roger Merryfield’s call for a pre-election debate on “pre-emption” is fatuous for many reasons.

Wars fought by hegemonic powers are rarely, if ever, pre-emptive in the proper sense of the term. At best, they are preventive, fought to forestall something that might happen in the future.

We do not need to debate the logic or morality of a policy of preventive war, which is clearly illegal by any interpretation of international law. In reality, the situation is far worse. The superpower advances arguments for initiating military action that mask the real reasons for the aggression. Years (and countless deaths) later, the truth is occasionally admitted.

Such wars clearly fall under the definition of “aggressive war” laid out by the Nuremberg tribunal. The architects of these wars should properly be in the dock; not planning further military adventures.

The United States should conduct its foreign policy as a republic, not an empire. We have much work to do.

Alan Kent

Kansas City

Stop the violence

I write this letter with a broken heart. A few weeks ago, a young man lost his life over a vehicle and a set of wheels (3/27, Local, “Errand put man in path of killer; Graduate student and investment company worker had stopped to clean out his vehicle and stranger fired on him”). This young man had worked hard to achieve his goals.

This violence must stop now. Are you doing your part? Are you willing to stand up and speak up when you see problems in front of you? Now is the time to do just that. We must make people accountable for their actions.

Don’t sit back and ignore what is happening to your world. Speak up for a better tomorrow.

Don Beashore

Kansas City, Kan.

Global hunger crisis

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the USDA’s food program, says “poor farmers will not be able to afford fertilizer and diesel” because of high energy prices (4/15, A-6, “Global hunger crisis deepens”). She correctly sees the connection between biofuel and food shortages. But in that thinking also lies the assumption that fossil-based diesel and fertilizers would help us to overcome the crisis.

How safe is a food production based on nonrenewable energy? What happens when these are getting scarcer? We have to honestly tell the world that basing agriculture on these two pillars not only destroys soil and farms, but has also raised totally unrealistic expectations on how many people the Earth can sustainably feed in the long run.

The U.S. agricultural system has proved to be ruinous for the land. Pollution, degradation of the soil, high erosion, health problems for man and beast are just a few of the consequences.

We need to find ways to produce food in harmony with nature all around the globe. That is the organic way.

By the way, my wife and I farm organically with draft horses and provide more than 90 families with vegetables and eggs.

Klaus Karbaumer

Platte City

Getting to know Obama

Several weeks ago, some of the media declared they really “didn’t know very much” about Barack Obama.

Surprise, surprise!

Be careful what you wish for.

Betty May Locke

Gardner

Earth Day every day

John Askew’s article (4/23, Opinion: “How to Make Earth Day Every Day”) really made me think. I agree that Earth Day is a day when almost everyone does his or her part to help the environment. People make conscious efforts to recycle cans, throw away trash and even plant trees.

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