Abject stupidity

Here is an editorial I just read in The Smithfield Herald:

I attended a meeting recently at which prayers were offered. One included a prayer for our troops. Surely a commendable idea. Almost all of us had a loved one in service. We were praying for him or her.

Then I began thinking: What if I were a soldier — a soldier holding a gun, suddenly facing a soldier "of the other side", also with a gun. Whoever shot first would be the one still alive.

And I realized, I didn’t really want to kill that other guy. I didn’t want his family to be grieving for him — his children, his parents, his friends. I would not wish to be a killer. Why must we turn our youths into killers?

I heard an idea worth considering. Why not make our major objective creating worthwhile jobs for people in their own countries, instead of human beings to be killed or maimed for life? It would show the love we truly feel for all peoples.

DOROTHY ONISKO, Brogden Road, Smithfield

Well, Dorothy, here is the problem. I assume that you refer to the situation in either Iraq or Afghanistan. First, it is not true that whomever fires first will be the one that lives. That may often be the case, but it is not necessarily a true assumption.

Second, the idea that just giving Arabs, Middle Easterners, and radical Muslim extremists jobs will make them want peace is probably the stupidist thing I have heard in a long time. These people don't want jobs. They want you, your way of life, your family, and everyone like you DEAD. Get it? Either dead or converted to Islam. Period. You are an infidel to them and therefore deserving of death.

They don't give a rat's eyebrow about jobs. They want to dominate the world. They want to make sure that we don't. Jobs are not created by anything but the economic engine of the region and private industry. People work to pay taxes that keeps a government going that hires yet other people. With no trade or economy, there will be no jobs. That is part of what we have been providing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even if we pulled out of those countries right now, some who have tasted freedom and economic prosperity would attempt to continue therein. Many will return to business as usual, as has been the case in that region of the world for centuries. Some will work, others leach. Some will prosper, many will continue in or revert to poverty. That is the way of the world.

What jobs do you propose we give them? Should our tax dollars be spent on employing people in other nations and keeping them on our payroll? Should we do this while we have people who need jobs right here in our own nation? Should we take money from people who will work and give it to others in another nation? Or for that matter to others in this nation who will NOT work?

The problem in the Middle East is not unemployment. It is evil men, following an evil religion. Any other thought on that is just plain ignorant, nay, stupid. If Middle Eastern people want jobs, they can come here and drive cabs, start a Subway franchise, open a motel, buy a convenience store, or a run a Dunkin' Donuts. It seems to work for many others.