We should let Putin, Assad have Syria
Vladimir Putin may have ulterior motives, but as a fellow tyrant to Bashar Assad, he understands what we apparently cannot grasp after many failed attempts to “manage” the Middle East. We removed Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi and got the chaos that now rules in the ruins of their nations, yet our president remains fixated on removing Assad in Syria. However harsh these tyrants may have been, they pale by comparison to the only other option — a brutal Islamist caliphate bent not only on ruling the region, but destroying our Western way of life.
Let the Russians and Assad have Syria. We should have learned this lesson long ago.
JAMES WILEY, DECATUR
Don’t blame guns for bad parenting
I cannot begin to imagine the grief of parents who loose a child — both parents of the victims, and parents of the young man who killed the people and then himself. I have read that the father of the Oregon shooter says we need stronger gun laws. It must be the fault of government for allowing people to own guns, seems to be his complaint.
If he wants to find someone to blame, I would suggest he go into the bathroom, turn on the light, look in the mirror and take the blame for not doing his job as a parent to teach his child that society does not allow this sort of conduct. If the child is mentally unstable, the parent should have seen this and taken appropriate action. The fact is, the parents failed the child, and a large group of other people paid a terrible price. All guns were taken from law-abiding citizens in England and Australia, and the gun crime rate went up.
If this young man did not obey the laws that say he shouldn’t kill, why in heaven’s name do we think he would obey a law that said he couldn’t own more guns?
BILL MANGUM, DECATUR
Notoriety drives mass murderers
Background checks. Waiting periods. Reduced ammo clips. Anti-gun legislation. Confiscation. Mental health care. Seems like we’ve about covered it all, yet nobody’s pointing to the prime motivating factor with these types of criminals: Notoriety. Why is the media not held accountable for the part they play? A camera is even more important than a firearm to these misfits. This was apparent as far back as the murder of John Lennon, committed solely for infamy. Had America insisted that such killers remain forever in obscurity, think of all the wonderful people still living in the world today.
ALAN CHAMBERS, DECATUR
