Rita Wolicki Muckian – 6/20/05

This page was last updated on June 20, 2005.

An ‘incompetent employer’; Rita Wolicki Muckian; Beaver County Times; June 20, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“A few derogatory letters have been published in response to William Smith’s article encouraging young high school graduates to think before they enlist and to ask themselves if Jesus would really want them to go to war.

“This was excellent advice. However, being a practical as well as a religious person, I would like to add a few helpful hints...

“Because the economy is bad and jobs that exist pay minimal wage...”

[RWC] The economy is not bad. When will folks like Ms. Muckian quit promoting a myth? At 5.1%, unemployment is low and the U.S. economy is one of the world’s fastest growing.

“Because college is expensive and does not offer any assurances of employment after graduation...”

[RWC] College is expensive, but there are enough options out there that expense is not a valid reason not to attend.

“Do not feel that you have no other alternative but to enlist...”

[RWC] Yeah, right.

“Because you do.

“Trade schools and courses offered by community colleges offer great opportunities to succeed and make a good living.”

[RWC] Didn’t Ms. Muckian write above there are no “assurances of employment after [college] graduation?” Is she now claiming there are guarantees if you attend “trade schools and courses offered by community colleges?”

“Armed services are not for everyone. You are in a free country. You should exercise your right to choose. You are not unpatriotic because you see no purpose in this war. Many men and women - including seven of my uncles in World War II and my father-in-law and two uncles in World War I - fought for that right and for you to have this choice.”

[RWC] It’s absolutely true that military life is not for everyone.

Regarding “you are not unpatriotic because you see no purpose in this war,” not always. It’s fine to have a difference of opinion and to believe the Iraq War is unnecessary. How you express that difference of opinion determines whether you should be considered unpatriotic. It is wrong to try to undermine our efforts. When your comments are viewed as positive in the media of our enemies, that’s aiding and abetting the enemy, and that’s unpatriotic.

“We have, in the highest office in the country a president who attacked and destroyed a country that had no weapons of mass destruction, yet ignores North Korea, which proclaims that it does have weapons of mass destruction and plans to use them.”

[RWC] That we now know Iraq may have had no WMD is old news. If President Bush in 2002/2003 had claimed Iraq had no WMD, he and Saddam Hussein would have been the only two persons on the planet making that assertion. Everyone, including Bill Clinton and all Democrats who had access to the same intelligence reports as President Bush, came to the same conclusion that Iraq had WMD. In fact, some Democrats, including former VP candidate John Edwards, presented a direr picture than President Bush.

Ignoring North Korea? Does Ms. Muckian get her news from the Democrat party? We want to engage North Korea in multi-party talks so we’re not going it alone as Bill Clinton did in the 1990s. Lest we forget, the Clinton agreement is a prime reason North Korea has nuclear weapons. Don’t folks like Ms. Muckian always claim we went into Iraq “on our own” without involving other countries? We refuse to repeat the mistakes of the Clinton administration with respect to North Korea, and Ms. Ruckian wants us to go it alone.

“We have a president who is closing reserve units on one hand and flashing red, yellow and green spectrums of color representing our levels of danger and vulnerability, leaving us unprotected.”

[RWC] Unprotected? Is Ms. Ruckian serious? The base closings have nothing to do with troop reductions. The idea of consolidating underutilized or inefficient bases is to make our defense dollars go further so we are more secure, not less secure.

“We have a president who, with 13,000 wounded soldiers in the Iraq War, is closing veterans’ hospitals, including a portion of the Walter Reed Hospital.”

[RWC] Ms. Ruckian ignores the fact that spending on veterans has increased twice as fast during the Bush administration as it did during the Clinton administration. Spending increases during the first four years of the Bush administration exceeded those of the entire eight years of the Clinton administration.

“Would you want to work for such an incompetent employer?”

[RWC] Given the factual discrepancies in her letter, Ms. Ruckian should be more careful when she calls someone incompetent.