Mideast madness
Mideast madness
Pradeepta Chowdhury’s July 20 letter (Your Views, Tribune-Herald) says Israel should not retaliate against Hamas’ missile attacks until some undisclosed number of Israelis are killed or injured. Wow! Interesting position, and I must wonder if its basis is humanitarianism or if some other factor is at play here.
I offer an analogous hypothetical situation for Mr. Chowdhury to consider: His family is being attacked by an assailant throwing homemade Molotov cocktails at them. The bombs have not yet reached their mark, but they continue to come, and some are landing in reasonable proximity to his family.
Would Mr. Chowdhury ask that the assailant not be forcefully removed until one or more of Mr. Chowdhury’s family members is dead? If so, I believe his loyalties are in the wrong place.
It is unclear to me if Predeepta Chowdhury’s objection is to retaliation itself, or to the fact that Israel has the benefit of some protection sponsored by the U.S.
If his concern is the cost of this protection, I would remind him that we spend large sums of money to train, maintain and deploy SWAT teams and other such organizations to protect those being threatened, and that this protection might well extend to killing the assailant.
Perhaps Mr. Pradeepta’s efforts would be better spent in convincing Hamas they are losing a battle they started. It seems that no casualties on one side versus hundreds of casualties on the other side indicates a trend a wise person would stop.
Stephen Gross
Hilo
Farewell, banners
The current aerial advertising controversy taking place on Oahu by Aerial Banners North has many Oahu folks up in arms.
Oahu’s beautiful skyline has for years been ruined by the many concrete jungles that currently exist there. There is enough scenery pollution already on Oahu, with many high-rise buildings dominating the landscape.
Aerial Banners North seems to be defiant, refusing all requests to stop carrying out their business of aerial advertising. They don’t seem to understand that the majority of the people do not want Hawaii’s unique scenery to be marred by aerial advertising. This is one reason why Hawaii is one of the few states in the U.S. that has no large advertising billboards, thanks mainly to the help of the Outdoor Circle.
Does the rest of Hawaii want to see aerial advertising on their islands? For the majority, we think not. May I suggest that the next banner Aerial Banners North should fly is “Aloha ‘Oe.”
Rick LaMontagne
Volcano