Considering what America is about | Letter to the Editor

In a recent letter (July 6, 2016 edition of the Courier-Herald), Jon Buss has offered us an attempted but failed effort at character assassination of Hillary Clinton and collaterally of Barack Obama, focusing on the tragic events in Benghazi, Libya.

In a recent letter (July 6, 2016 edition of the Courier-Herald), Jon Buss has offered us an attempted but failed effort at character assassination of Hillary Clinton and collaterally of Barack Obama, focusing on the tragic events in Benghazi, Libya. Over the course of four years, republican members of the House have tried repeatedly to tie the death of Chris Stevens and his staff to some heartless actions of both Clinton and the President. During seven Republican controlled committees, 21 hearings and the expenditure of over $7 million in taxpayer money, the allegations asserted by Buss and cribbed from hot talk radio have been investigated in depth and with the assistance of a republican chosen military expert. Secretary Clinton endured over eleven hours of grilling from the hostile Republican members without wilting.

And after all that, when the hearings were recently concluded, how many of the accusations so carelessly alleged by Mr. Buss were confirmed? Not a single one!

After spending two-thirds of his letter in this fruitless witch hunt, Mr. Buss tells us in the final third, not once but twice, that he doesn’t have time to go into specifics justifying infantile gossip about Mrs. Clinton’s personal characteristics. He just assures us that she is a bully.

Buss concludes by accusing the Democrats of not knowing the difference between right and wrong. Well, let me offer you a pretty clear difference. Donald Trump has clearly stated that he thinks Saddam Hussein had the right way to deal with terrorists… don’t question them; don’t read them rights; just kill them. And further, he says that the US should kill the families of terrorists. Both of those are considered “extra-judicial” murder and are criminal actions. In addition, he repeatedly has told us that, in his administration, torture, including things “much worse” than water-boarding will be official policy. According to numerous treaties signed and ratified by the US Congress (Article 32 of the 4th Geneva Convention, UN Convention Against Torture, Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture) and United States law (18 United States Title 18 sec 2340(2)), torture, including water-boarding, is a war crime.

I ask you to consider, if you care at all about right and wrong, are torture and extra-judicial murder of innocent families right or are they wrong. After all is said and done, is that what America is about and can you vote for a person who not only supports but advocates and prescribes these actions, and will require our military to engage in them?

Robert DuChaine

Buckley