Letters: Readers discuss Trump’s worthwhile trade war and Iran’s aspirations
Degrees of hurt
I understand completely the woe from those who say that President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is going to hurt.
However, now imagine that on Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress, saying: “I know the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbor have hurt us, but we can’t go to war with them or Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Too many of our men would die.”
American farmers will be hurt by a trade war with China. Farm boys died at Omaha Beach. Manufacturing jobs will be hurt by a trade war. Plant workers died at Okinawa. Consumers will have to pay more at the store. Everything was rationed during the war.
My point is the Chinese have been ripping us off for years. They don’t trade fair and they steal our technology. All wars have a cost.
You have to ask if the benefits of victory outweigh the sacrifice. At least in a trade war, the losses are dollars, not lives.
Ed O’Toole
Kansas City
Can’t put it aside
Former U.S. Rep. Tom Coleman made many great points in his May 23 op-ed about the illegitimacy of the president and vice president. (11A, “Trump, Pence are illegitimate; they must go”) In fact, there are too many good points, and we cannot ignore them.
We know President Donald Trump is willing to open classified files on his own “witch hunt” of those who started the investigations into his alleged misdeeds. Our enemies and even friends don’t need to see all of our secrets. Will Attorney General William Barr be complicit in this scheme?
Some have said we should vote Trump out of office rather than impeach him. How many secrets will be revealed and other problems created before he leaves office? We are now giving farmers billions of dollars because of Trump’s misguided trade practices. Will we go to war to distract from something Trump doesn’t want us to see in his own record?
Gordon Draves
East Point, Georgia
Explosive goal?
Who will get the nuclear bomb-making operations when we invade Iran? Forget the oil deals that Donald Trump Jr. could very likely have already carved out for himself and his family with the butcher of Saudi Arabia. That’s a given.
We don’t need another despot with his finger on the trigger. Could the bomb capabilities be what Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman really wants?
And could that be what President Donald Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton are offering?
Murphy Dickson
Overland Park