Our Readers Respond...

Facts of War

Dear Editor:

Nations, including mid-Eastern countries, have been sending their young, uneducated and unemployed men to wars throughout history so they wouldn’t be rioting and starting revolutions at home.

Now the radical Islamic countries, funded by oil-rich billionaires, are using their young men and women as suicide bombers against the “decadent” West, especially the United States. Meanwhile, the moderate Muslims throughout the world seem paralyzed by these murderers who kill in the name of Allah while living among the moderates.

A Pew Research Center survey of Muslims, released on May 22, 2007, stated that 22 percent of them supported violence and suicide bombings. Muslim leaders do speak against these extremists but the
networks must give them access on a regular basis to denounce the use of violence, using Islam as an excuse.

This “holy war” didn’t start with the war in Iraq or on 9/11. There were attacks against the West since the 1980s but the U.S. retaliation had been mediocre and feeble. Whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or not, the Bush administration decided it was time to - ght these Islamic radicals outside the United States and in
their own countries. When the troops leave Iraq and Afghanistan, the murderers will follow them to the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

The Iraqis were given the opportunity for freedom and an elected government with laws, an open court system, and an economy based on contracts but they chose corruption and sectarian slaughter. Millions of Iraqi men are leaving their country instead of fighting for a new way of life. Some are attending college in the West while Americans are dying in Iraq.

Americans are at a distinct disadvantage in Iraq. e U.S. hasn’t won a war since World War II* and, although victory will be claimed, success doesn’t seem achievable, according to the generals in charge.

Young Americans, in order to get a college education, will sell their “pound of flesh” to Shylock (the military) possibly after viewing a “peace-keeping, feel-good” commercial. Unfortunately, during their first day of training, these recruits find out the primary mission of the military is to kill the enemy. ey also aren’t told about the possible loss of limbs, eyes, and brain functioning, followed by inadequate medical care with long waiting periods at under-staffed Veterans Administration hospitals.

All wars end in larger governments and a greater, permanent loss of economic and personal freedoms, including illegal “stops and searches” of innocent citizens, bag searches in subways, the military with machine guns on trains and at stations, and extensive, personal humiliation at airports. Still, the public clamors for more “security.”

The solution might be an 85 percent turnout in the 2008 election, as the French recently achieved, and a vote for candidates who swear to starve this dinosaur government by cutting its food supply – TAXES.

Charles Roda, Mount Vernon

* Editor’s Note: e United States, in fact, accomplished its limited objective, winning the war (or Police Action, if you prefer) in Korea, having pushed the North Koreans back to the 38th Parallel.

Reader Responds to Advocate Column

Dear Editor:
Richard Blassberg asks, ‘what other choice did Officer DiGuglielmo have under the circumstances?’ He clearly did have another choice: Officer DiGuglielmo and his brother-in-law, having just subdued Charles Campbell, should have attempted to subdue him again, instead of firing three shots into his chest. They were able to wrestle him to the ground once, they should have wrestled him to the ground again.

Richard Blassberg does a disservice to Officer DiGuglielmo with such biased and emotional account of an event
he did not witness. By killing Charles Campbell, Officer DiGuglielmo took the law in his own hands and applied
the punishment that he deemed appropriate.

He’s a convicted murderer and deserves to spend a long time behind bars.

Robert Brisbane
New York City

Editor’s Note: Mr. Brisbane is clearly entitled to his opinion, and we welcome it. However, he would do well
to consider that Officer DiGuglielmo’s response was precisely what he was trained to do for 12 years as a police
officer, under the circumstances.

To suggest, as he does, that Officer DiGuglielmo and his brother-in-law, “were able to wrestle him to the ground
once,” and should have done that again, is to lose sight of the fact that, now, Campbell was in the act of using
a deadly weapon and, based upon the bullet entry points, as revealed at trial, was swinging at his victim when shot.

Clearly the jury that heard the case could not bring themselves to convict Officer DiGuglielmo of Intentional
Murder, or even Assault. His conviction for Depraved Indifference Murder was not supported by any evidence of that crime.

A Reader’s Well-Deserved Tribute To Doris L. Sassower

Dear Editor:

Flag Day, in which we Americans celebrate truth, honor and justice for all, was also the 16th anniversary of
the suspension of the license to practice law of Doris L. Sassower. Her contention that the Judicial Nominating
Convention as a method of choosing judges was fundamentally corrupt, has been validated as New York State must, this year, change from that method. I believe it has been deemed unconstitutional.

We have read several articles in The Westchester Guardian which detail corruption in the courts, particularly
as it pertains to women and Domestic Relations. The same is true of Putnam County.

Doris L. Sassower began her crusade to help women during her early years of law practice when she first saw
women devastated by former husbands who corrupted the process of divorce.

She later saw these same women become victims of corrupt judges, and said women, according to your articles,
suffer irreparable harm. They are continuing to suffer such harm. However, they no longer have the courageous
and ethical Doris L. Sassower to practice law on their behalf.

Ms. Sassower has been honored too many times over the years to mention. She was recently honored with the
Giraffe Award, and has been honored in the book Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1965.

Whereas, I am fully aware that many are too fearful to openly support her fight, I am also fully aware that
Doris L. Sassower is deserving of recognition for her long battle on behalf of women, ethics, and honor. Isn’t it
time we begin to redress the grievous wrongs that she has suffered? Might The Westchester Guardian honor her
achievements in some small way? To those of us who consider her a legend, and feel her life is a lesson in the
struggle for truth and honor, it would be deeply appreciated.

Eileen Redmond-White, Esq.