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Missile defense works; joint shield will boost it

Re the March 9 news analysis opinion by Robert Burns of The Associated Press (“Clinton driving a hard bargain in missile talks with Russia”):

With the launch of Iran’s first satellite into space on the back of a multistage rocket, the temperature of U.S.-Iranian relations has clearly shot up.

As the Chinese and Russians have shown, this alleged commercial missile launch capability can easily be transferred to a military, intercontinental ballistic capability.

While Burns’ article correctly noted that tremendous benefits as well as serious political challenges exist to creating a credible European missile defense system, it failed to explain one key assumption: Thanks to the persistence of American engineers and manufacturers, missile defense actually works.

The technology has come a long way since President Reagan’s “Star Wars” fantasy. One system in California has been successfully tested and protects against missiles from North Korea, and NATO has approved the construction of a Polish site to counteract the Iranian threat.

If President Obama can persuade Russia to work with the West on a common missile defense shield, it would help take the wind out of Iran’s hawkish posturing and provide critical security assurances to the country’s wary neighbors, including Israel.

With the proverbial stick currently in use elsewhere, President Obama’s diplomatic carrots will go much further with a strong shield at the ready.

Jack Otero

former undersecretary of labor for international affairs

Washington, D.C.

Satirist Stewart’s topics aren’t laughing matters

Leftist “comedian” Jon Stewart criticized financial commentator Jim Cramer for a bad stock pick to Cramer’s face by tut-tutting, “I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it’s not a f***ing game.”

But Stewart let months go by before uttering his criticism, showing that what really outraged Stewart was not Cramer’s bad stock pick, but rather, that Cramer much more recently had the audacity to criticize Obama’s socialist financial policies.

Of course, this is the same Stewart who sneers at fighting terrorists. For example, Stewart is fond of snarkily labeling the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, as “”Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia.” (Editor’s note: “The Daily Show” segments on the Iraq war are labeled Mess O’Potamia.)

Stewart is gutless, so we’ll never see him hop a plane to Iraq and criticize U.S. soldiers to their faces. Nor will we see Stewart say to these soldiers’ faces that making fun of them for entertainment purposes is OK, since – according to Stewart’s “logic” – fighting terrorism is “a f***ing game.”

But then, what should one expect from the cowardly Jon Stewart, who is far from the only leftist who’d give up an arm and a leg for the mere opportunity to kiss Obama’s rear end?

Mark Kalinowski

New York, N.Y.

Pope’s hard stand vs. condoms is embraced

Re the pope’s visit to Africa and his comments against the use of condoms:

I commend Pope Benedict XVI for his hard stand against artificial contraception which thwarts the natural generation of life. His position is meant to provide Catholics, as well as non-Catholics, with a moral compass for authentic freedom.

Freedom does not rest in one’s ability to do as one pleases. “Ye shall be as gods.” This promise is quite clearly behind modernity’s radical demand for freedom. Such anarchical freedom does not redeem, but makes man a miscarried creature, a pointless being.

Pope Paul VI rightly predicted back in 1968 that failure to follow the dictates of Natural Law regarding contraception would lead to a lowering of moral standards, a rise in infidelity and promiscuity, a lessening of respect for women and government-enforced limitations on population.

Those who advocate condoms to stem the spread of the deadly virus HIV/AIDS are thus misguided as they only aggravate the problem. The only foolproof and morally legitimate solution to preventing AIDS is abstinence and marital fidelity.

Paul Kokoski

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

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