TNT letters to the editor, 8/18/2021

Afghanistan mistakes

Why are we so shocked by recent events in Afghanistan? When Donald Trump signed his deal with the Taliban, it became a forgone conclusion that they would win.

Remember Vietnam? 168 billion dollars, 58,220 American service members dead and 153,303 wounded, of whom 23,214 were 100% disabled. Plus 1,643 MIAs.

Richard Nixon made a deal, and the North Vietnamese knew they’d eventually win. The South Vietnamese government was corrupt and didn’t have support of citizens.

John F. Kennedy got us into the mess, Lyndon B. Johnson escalated it and Nixon put the nail in the coffin.

Fast forward to the present. The cost: Over 2 trillion dollars, plus 2,448 military members and 3,846 civilian contractors dead.

George W. Bush got us into Afghanistan, Barack Obama kept us there, Trump made the deal with the Taliban and Joe Biden had the backbone to call it quits.

The Afghan government was corrupt with no popular support; we did the fighting, and the Afghan military collapsed.

For 20 years the politicians and generals told us how good things were. Once again the joke was on the American people. Maybe one of these days we will learn. Our military deserves better.

Ronald Suarez, Spanaway

Vaccine choice

“Stop harassing the unvaccinated,” (TNT online Xtra Opinion section, 8/5.)

Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen overlooks an important point about COVID vaccinations. He encourages people to get vaccinated “for their own sake.” But if they choose not to, “they pose no real danger to the rest of us.”

Wrong.

First, if you become infected there’s a good chance you will unknowingly and unintentionally infect others, who may become hospitalized and die (including those who can’t get vaccinated).

Second and more importantly, every new coronavirus infection increases the odds of another mutation. Viruses love to mutate!

Allowed to spread, it’s only a matter of time before a more contagious and lethal variant emerges – one that renders our current vaccines useless.

For those of you who advocate for “natural herd immunity,” the coronavirus loves you and hopes to mutate in your body some day.

Calling this simply a personal choice is akin to viewing drinking and driving as a personal choice.

Unless you’ve figured out a way to contract COVID in a vacuum, just know that choosing to remain unvaccinated is putting others at risk as well.

John Maier, University Place

DUI legal limit

Re: “Washington has zero tolerance for impairment, even if .08 DUI law may not make that clear,” ( TNT, 8/16).

The purpose of a legal limit is to ensure due process when someone gets behind the wheel.

To arrest someone for DUI when they are below the legal limit gives law enforcement carte blanche to arrest people whether they are impaired or not.

They all know the standard verbiage to write in their reports: swerving in traffic, bloodshot eyes, smell of alcohol – facts that usually must be relied upon because the officer says so.

A legal limit is just that; anything under the threshold should be legal, and a person should not face DUI charges if they are below it.

Of course, if other substances are found that could cause impairment, that’s a different story.

A legal limit puts everyone on notice. To charge someone with DUI when there are no provable signs of impairment other than an officer’s testimony is just another abuse of authority.

Laura Rodgers, Tacoma

This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 8:55 AM with the headline "TNT letters to the editor, 8/18/2021."