Robert Steffes – 4/2/08

This page was last updated on April 2, 2008.

History lesson; Robert Steffes; Beaver County Times; April 2, 2008.

For a little more background about him, please see my critique of a previous letter from Mr. Steffes.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“During the waning years of the Bush regime, I find myself actually enjoying letters to the editor from W’s dwindling core of supporters.

“Glenn Thiel (‘The measure of leadership,’ Friday) doesn’t disappoint as he plays the last rhetorical card to explain away the apparent disaster known as the Iraq occupation.

“To wit: yes, it’s looked bad for the past five years, but ‘history’ will prove the wisdom of invading a country without cause against world opinion at huge cost in blood and treasure with no end in sight.”

[RWC] “Without cause?” I guess Mr. Steffes didn’t read the Iraq War Resolution approved by Congress.

Regarding the “against world opinion,” is Mr. Steffes asserting the U.S. should let international opinion govern national security decisions?

“What are the odds the future will vindicate Bush’s leadership?

“Leaving aside the loss of America’s moral leadership through repudiation of international treaties, mistreatment of prisoners and authoritarian behavior, let’s look at the dollar cost down the road.”

[RWC] These are just leftist talking points. If America lost its alleged “moral leadership,” who is now the world’s moral leader? Perhaps Mr. Steffes can tell us which “international treaties” we repudiated and describe the “authoritarian behavior.” Actually, being a leftist, Mr. Steffes should look favorably on “authoritarian behavior” since leftist ideology is its home. Other than the relatively minor – but wrong nonetheless – incident at Abu Ghraib, what “mistreatment of prisoners” – even those not qualifying as POWs – is Mr. Steffes writing about?

“‘The Three Trillion Dollar War’ by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes provides a deliberately conservative estimate of the full economic toll of Bush’s adventure. The ultimate cost might well be much higher.”

[RWC] I don’t know about you, but describing anyone as a Nobel anything lost its luster after the likes of Yasser Arafat, Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore were awarded Nobel Peace prizes.

For the sake of argument, let’s say the estimate is correct. Here’s the problem; it doesn’t make a comparison to the cost of doing nothing had Iraq had the WMD everyone believed it had. Here’s an idea for a book. How much money could we have saved if had we just forgiven Germany and Japan and not even entered World War II? After all, after Germany and Japan saw we meant them no harm, they would have left us alone to live in peace, right?

“This staggering sum, most of it borrowed, will be passed on to our children and grandchildren. That’s money that will not be spent on roads, schools, research or health care.”

[RWC] Funny how Mr. Steffes failed to note far more debt “will be passed on to our children and grandchildren” as the result of Socialist Security, Medicare, and a raft of Great Society wealth/income redistribution programs, isn’t it?

“And finally, I do agree with Thiel that ‘we should thank God that under Bush’s watch there has not been an attack on American soil since 2001.’

“We certainly can’t thank Bush, who has manifestly weakened our nation by every measure, past, present and future.”

[RWC] Blah, blah, blah.