Stop the sniping about “American Sniper”

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the movie “American Sniper.” One reason I wanted to see it was to get a better understanding of what is actually going on over there. I don’t believe the agenda-driven media is reporting the whole story.

I went to on a Wednesday, the 11:40 a.m. early show, hoping to avoid a crowd. However, by the time the movie began, the theater was three-quarters full. The crowd consisted mostly of middle-aged and older folks, both men and women. They could have been veterans of past wars.

So upon viewing the film, what did we all get? Contrary to the naive elite, we did not get  glorification of war. What we got was a portrayal. The fact that the film shows U.S. soldiers as effective fighters, totally committed to what they are doing, is not glorification. It’s about doing what needs to be done when all else has failed. When that point has been reached, I want the meanest, toughest warriors we have to fight the fight. Can you imagine Barack Obama or Eric Holder leading a platoon of soldiers in a raid in Afghanistan? That’s more like a “Saturday Night Live” skit, as well as a Taliban dream come true.

I think “American Sniper” is an important film. Both “doves” and “hawks” should embrace the movie for what it portrays and use that portrayal to promote dialogue about what it means to go to war.

General Lee said while watching the Union slaughter at Fredricksburg that “… it’s good war is so horrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”

War should be avoided at all costs. But if that can’t be done, let our soldiers do what they are trained to do. Let them fight to win.

— Allan Gilmour

Salisbury

 

Stop the slaughter

Are we really going to let this happen again?

This time we are seeing it in the paper every day. How many lives are going to be taken before it reaches the same amount as the Nazis killed, and we were only publicly knowledgeable on that, after the fact. We are now celebrating the liberation of Auschwitz. So when are we going to see the liberation of Iraq and Syria. We went to war over oil and a tyrant. How did we end up with a worse dilemma?
I don’t want to see our—or even our allies’—young men and women go to war, but can we let this slaughter of people continue? Let’s not get into what religion they are; a true religion does not call for the beheading of anyone opposed to their faith.
So maybe we have given more than most to police the world’s problems, but we can’t go in and arm any armies and then five years later have our own guns used against us, like we have now in Iraq. OK, so we did the same thing in Vietnam, while leaving millions of weapons.
What say we go into a country with leaders’ and hopefully the people’s blessings to win the war, not police or be politically correct? You have to decide: Do you let these vicious animals continue to live, and feed and clothe them with the chance they will escape and spread their evil again? Or do you eliminate all you can find, making us no better?
Feb. 4, 2015: Thank you, Jordan, you handled it with your only choice, but having the guts to go forward was something the world needed to see.
The unfortunate part is, we will have to take a lot of innocent people out just to get them, and they will surely hide among us.
My opinion may seem a bit harsh, but refer to my opening statement: Are we going to let it happen again!

— Wayne Tate

Spencer

Thanks for speed limit reduction

Many thanks to the City of Salisbury and the N.C. Department of Transportation from all of us at Catawba College for the recent lowering of the speed limit on West Innes Street in front of our campus to 25 mph. We are hopeful that this speed limit reduction will remind all drivers passing through our campus to slow down and use caution because of our frequent pedestrian traffic.

This speed limit reduction is a wonderful example of government officials hearing and seeing our need and working collaboratively to address it. I know each member of the campus joins me in saying “thank you” for helping us make Catawba a safer place.

— Brien Lewis

Salisbury

Lewis is the president of Catawba College.