Leave Afghanistan; devaluing musicians; LeBreton columns

Leave Afghanistan

The Russians had enough sense to call it quits after their unsuccessful nine-year war in Afghanistan. The “peace” president, Barack Obama, can’t seem to take a hint. (See Friday news story, “Obama extends military mission in Afghanistan.”)

Sure our puppet government in Afghanistan wants us to stay. Who would want to kill the billion-dollar American taxpayer goose?

Let’s not forget our real loss — the deaths and lifetime injuries to our troops.

It makes no difference how long we stay the course. When and if we ever leave, there will be another broken, war-torn country in chaos. Just like Iraq, another one of our failures.

Get out of Afghanistan now!

It doesn’t take a giant brain to figure this out.

For the past 14 years we have given billions of dollars, advice, training, weapons, vehicles, you name it — more than we’ve given to our own people.

What we have received back are thousands of killed and wounded — thousands of amputees among our servicemen and women.

These people need to fight their own battles. If they’re willing to walk 100 miles to get from one country to another, they have the ability to go back and fight for their homes and families.

If they want to live under a dictator, so be it.

“Boots on the ground” — language that politicians use — will always involve Americans!

Devaluing musicians

My husband and I love being in a community where orchestra members are loved and appreciated by those who hear them. In Fort Worth, one sees all ages enjoying the incredibly beautiful music of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

But we are distressed by how the orchestra members are treated. They need to make a living.

The management of FWSO is causing the orchestra members pain. Most are younger people raising families. How can they survive when their incomes are cut and their season is split? Management wants to give them less time and money.

The musicians are wonderful. Management should want to pay them more. How can management hope to have angry or frightened musicians play beautifully?

I imagine that most of the higher-level managers at the symphony, and especially the board members, are affluent enough that they have no such worries. It’s wrong for those who have plenty to devalue the exquisite work of those who do not.

LeBreton columns

After Gil LeBreton’s offensive columns about Canadians during the Vancouver Olympics, I wondered how he might report on the Toronto Blue Jays-Texas Rangers series. So I checked his columns.

He didn’t disappoint, especially in the gloating “no ‘offence’ ” one before the third game of the series. He made disparaging remarks about Canadian spelling, vocabulary, currency, etc. How petty!

As for the rest of the column, he was wrong on almost every count as the rest of the series showed. The Blue Jays had better pitching, hitting and fielding.

Up here we were embarrassed by the few idiots who threw the beer in the fifth game during the seventh-inning controversy while the Rangers’ manager chuckled in the dugout.

We Canadians are a polite bunch normally, so sorry about that. Too bad LeBreton can’t be the same, but I guess karma has its way. And, nobody got shot!

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Leave Afghanistan; devaluing musicians; LeBreton columns."