Readers React: Obama shows us the right way to go to war

To the editor: President Obama’s Middle East strategy is working. (“U.S. opens new front against Islamic State with airstrikes in Syria,” Sept. 22)

Several Arab nations have allied themselves with our forces and have helped both militarily and financially. Not fighting another Middle East war on our own is exactly what his strategy prevented. Although our security is involved, the territory is primarily the concern of those nations most effected by Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

Our president has been patient, calm and reluctant, and he is using force only when absolutely necessary. That is exactly what I wanted him to do.

Lou Rosen, Pacific Palisades

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To the editor: Islamic State is a nasty bunch of sociopathic murdering thugs, but it poses little threat to U.S. national security, only to individual Americans who venture into the dangerous regions it controls.

Instead of escalating this latest “problem” in the Middle East into yet another costly U.S. military incursion, Obama should simply tell Americans to stay safe by avoiding places where Islamic State is found.

Even a child knows you stay away from people and places that are dangerous.

Robert Ouriel, Pacific Palisades

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To the editor: Shortly after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Alexander de Seversky wrote “Victory Through Air Power,” which advocated the strategic use of air bombardment. He believed that air power could win wars.

His book was a bestseller, and he was considered a brilliant exponent of his ideas.

Obama appears to be a proponent of a similar strategy against Islamic State, using airstrikes to defeat it. Seversky’s ideas have been shown to be wrong. Is our president wrong now?

Daniel N. Fox, Pomona

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To the editor: As we are so eager to go to war again, let me suggest a way to cool down those who think that going to war is noble and an American obligation.

Let us make an amendment to the Constitution that requires all foreign wars to be financed by a special war tax and not with borrowed money. This tax burden should be carried to a large extent by those who seem most anxious to go to war and have the most to protect: the wealthiest of our citizens. After all, if we lose, they would have nothing left.

I would also suggest that those who have a son or a daughter in the armed forces be exempt from this tax or be allowed a “patriotic tax deduction.”

Nils-Eric Svensson, Laguna Woods

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