Attacking ‘Yucca and Gitmo’

Re “Yucca and Gitmo and what they share,” Opinion, May 13

Apparently what Yucca Mountain and Guantanamo Bay share is a sloppy analysis. Jonah Goldberg’s claim that “victory in the war against climate change is inconceivable without nuclear power” is wrong. While nuclear power production is essentially flat, wind and solar power capacity is rising rapidly and, at current rates, may surpass nuclear capacity within a decade. The real issue is not availability but cost and environmental impact. Wind power is already competitive with coal in many places in the U.S., the cost of solar power continues to go down, and neither of these have the long-term safety or environmental costs. Similarly, the people saying that Yucca Mountain is safe tend to live far away from it. The Nevada Legislature and most of the state’s residents oppose the Yucca Mountain project based on real concerns about long-term safety. As for Guantanamo Bay, Goldberg fails to address the real problem of people being held indefinitely without charge. Instead of addressing issues, Goldberg ignores them.

David Bendall

Aliso Viejo

Goldberg informs us that the National Review’s Andrew McCarthy believes that Guantanamo Bay is the most scrutinized prison in the world. That is correct. The prison is under the microscope because the world wants to know what in the hell is really going on there. Our government certainly is not forthcoming. People from Europe and Australia have been released with the condition that they do not discuss the facility or their treatment. We have to take the administration’s word on the conditions. We remember all too well “mission accomplished” and “weapons of mass destruction.” We have been told nothing but half-truths about every aspect of this charade.

It is not a simple “stink” that has been put on America; it is a foul stench that has been brewing for more than six years now. I have seen the replica of the Guantanamo cell that is touring the country. I wonder what Goldberg and McCarthy would write if they were locked up in that tiny cell with no due process. I doubt they would dazzle us with their reflections on the fine dining and recreation activities.

Scott J. Schuele

Los Feliz

Goldberg criticizes the Bill Clinton-era response to the first World Trade Center bombing by saying only “29 mostly low-level operatives were caught and convicted,” costing us “millions of dollars.” Uh, what? Ramzi Yousef was one of the masterminds of the plot and is serving a life sentence. Compare this to the billions-going-on-trillions spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which have failed to find Osama bin Laden, much less convict him.

Doug Palau

Los Angeles