Why are we not safe today?
(A) The U.S. Army was reduced in the 1990s by 500,000 active soldiers. Today we only have 417,186 active Army, 305,404 in the National Guard, and 154,047 in the Army Reserves. (These figures are from the September 15, 2006, Federal Executive magazine, page 38.)
(B) In the 1990s, the leadership of the Department of the Army reduced from 26 Army ammunition plants to only eight by 2006. (See History of Ammunition by George Nickolas, dated 2006.)
(C) The civilian production base for military ammunition and equipment reduced in the 1990s because of lack of requirements as reported to a congressional hearing in 2004. (See Federal Executive magazine pages 17 and 18 in the July 2004 issue.)
(D) The U.S. Army's combat vehicles, trucks, etc. are in need of repair because of extreme usage in Iraq and the Middle East. (See the September 15, 2006, Federal Executive magazine pages 33 to 42 by the chief of staff of the Army.)
Where are we now?
(A) We have 250,000 troops on duty in 120 countries around the world.
(B) The U.S. has troops in Bosnia and Kosovo that 10 years ago we were promised by the then president would only be there one year.
(C) Because we gave the equipment from Lake City Army Ammunition Plant to manufacture small-caliber ammunition to South Korea and Israel, we had to purchase 800 million rounds from Israel because we lacked capability in the Army ammunition plants and in the U.S. private sector to produce for a limited Middle-East war. (See Federal Executive magazine pages 17 and 18 in the July 2004 issue for commercial industry comments to Congress.)
What has been done to make us safer since 9/11?
(A) Congress voted to increase the U.S. Army's strength by 30,000 people (which leaves us short 470,000 of what the Army indicated in the early 1990s was needed for two and a half small wars).
(B) Terrorists openly admit that they are coming across the Mexican border with weapons, explosives, etc.
(C) Russia moved weapons of mass destruction from Iraq to Syria and Lebanon with their special forces before and during our invasion of Iraq. Who will use them and where?
George T. Nickolas
Davenport
Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?
In some court cases, particularly high-profile ones, both the prosecutor and the defense attorney hire so-called experts to help win their cases. Today, we have experts claiming that our earth is in peril because of "global warming." There also are many experts who refute this claim, but they get much less media attention.
From about 800 A.D. to 1300 A.D. we had the Medieval Warm Period, followed by the Little Ice Age from about 1550 to 1850. Dr. Philip Stott, professor emeritus of bio-geography at the University of London, stated, "During the Medieval Warm Period, the world was warmer even than today, and history shows that it was a wonderful period of plenty for everyone." Go to (http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_4185.shtml) for details.
Dr. Richard Lindzen, a meteorologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stated, "There is no consensus, unanimous or otherwise, about long-term climate trends and what causes them. ... Climate change is a complex issue where simplification tends to lead to confusion, and where understanding requires thought and effort."
Drs. Craig Idso and Keith Idso of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Global Change at Tempe, Arizona, have conducted thousands of experiments. They have proved beyond any doubt that with more CO2 in the air, plants grow bigger and better in almost every way.
There is no solid scientific evidence to support global warming. Many distinguished scientists do not agree with global-warming predictions. It would be tragic for our nation if we had to cut CO2 emissions (like the Kyoto Accords Treaty demands) to cure a nonexisting problem.
Dominick Odorizzi
Northridge, California
