Israel colluding with US imperial war machine, weapons industry to fuel aggression

Where are our ethical principles?

A large majority of Americans oppose our endless wars. Yet Craig Weinerman (Letters, July 6) applauds a shameful alliance encouraging these. Although an affluent country, Israel is our largest foreign aid beneficiary and spends its U.S. taxpayer allowance indulging the gargantuan financial appetites of our weapons industry and colluding with our imperial war machine.

Israel has repeatedly attacked and invaded all its contiguous neighbors, ever-protected from international sanctions by U.S. vetoes in the U.N. Security Council. Under the U.N. Charter armed aggression is permissible only for self-defense and Israel has never been invaded. Menachim Begin admitted in 1982 that Israel’s 1967 war was pre-emptive. The 1973 war was fought in the Sinai and Golan Heights, not in Israel, when Egypt and Syria attempted to regain their lands seized in 1967.

Once legendary for its Vietnam era anti-war activism, Eugene fell largely silent with termination of the draft. Conscience alone has proved insufficient to mothball our death machines or to end our support of Israeli aggression, largely identical to ours in illegality and larcenous intent. Critics are ironically branded “anti-Semitic” by opponents of America’s own wars. And Israel’s self-defending enemies are Semitic – Arab victims of European Zionist colonialism.

We must reclaim forgotten ethical principles.

Jack Dresser, Springfield

Fowl conditions

Like clockwork, chicken production plants release noxious gas from slaughtered carcasses. This stench blankets the otherwise pristine town. What you don’t see is the chicken wash water entering our local tributaries and rivers. Our air and water are too precious to allow big business mega production plants the opportunity to contaminate. Time to speak out. Squawk!

Alicia White, Cottage Grove

Read more: Opponents challenge permit for controversial mega-chicken ranch

Carbon for the people

Mother Nature has been warning us to take action to fight global warming by sending the world floods, droughts, wildfires, heat waves and destructive storms. The U.S. government, in cooperation with other countries, can prevent future disasters.

The June 30 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of West Virginia vs. EPA means that the EPA cannot issue regulations that go far enough in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, without congressional authorization.

The Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) has been pushing Congress to enact a price on carbon, with the money going back to households on an equal basis. During the current period of high gasoline prices, the oil industry is taking in more money. Under the legislation that CCL supports, the revenue would go back to the people.

Milton Takei, Eugene

A different kind of birth control

The abortion controversy seems to have bothered Marilyn Belwood's mind (Letters, July 17), specifically "... the people causing the pregnancies are taking absolutely no responsibility and are not even in the conversation."

I don't know where Ms. Belwood gets her data from, but as a member of that subset of the male species — those members of my sex who have undergone vasectomies — we have, albeit indirectly, done "our" part.

After close consideration of the consequences (largely, the unalterable effect of "reverse" vasectomies, at least at the time), and, of course, after consultation with my wife, we decided that "one was fun” (we had one daughter), and we elected to go ahead with the procedure.

I, for one, am very thankful that I did.

Michael E. Peterson, Eugene

Why shy away from reality?

I have lived here for 50 years. I moved here in 1972 when "EuGreen" was a sleepy little college town of 50,000 people. I loved Eugene for approximately 15 years. I had a nice career here and have a very comfortable retirement. Then the ugly changes came. Uncle Phil Knight took over, the homeless laid their claim, major drug use and sales, Black-white never-ending confrontations, city government worthless. The last 30 years here have been a nightmare.

Instead of reporting on how one's experience can start from Eugene, what if Don Kahle (Opinion, July 17) used valuable reporting space and addressed the real issues here in Eugene. Issues like: Eugene being a minimum-wage city, homelessness, drug use, drug dealers, crime and greedy landlords.

You reporters and journalists always paint a pretty picture, however, if you report and write about reality, your Oregon experience starting in Eugene is not a pretty picture at all.

John Zacharias, Eugene

The cost of your hate

For those haters who continue to bash the 45th president, please take the time to look around at your world and country. You may continue to hate him, but take a reality check of the ridiculously higher cost of food, fuel and the crisis at the boarder being handled by the current president and his administration.

Is the cost of your hate worth the pain the rest of us must endure?

It is time to reconsider the reality and stop the hate and destruction. The American people need help. The price of your hate is just too high.

Gene Enos, Eugene

When letters become comedy

It's too bad Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" is no longer on the air because reading Raymond Moreno's letters to The Register-Guard would have made a great segment lampooning the last president.

First off, oil and gas prices are set internationally and the U.S. has been an exporter for years. Let's get that out of the way. Biden just took a trip to Saudi Arabia to try and deal with that. He and his cabinet have nothing to do with those commodities' pricing.

Re: "failed presidency," when I think failed presidency, I think of the last guy in office who set tariffs against China and then had to subsidize farmers and other businesses with government money when they couldn't do business with trading partners and separated children from parents at the border, which we're paying for in establishing reunions now.

More letters:Shouldn’t Eugene City Council ask residents about decisions such as the land swap with UO?

I'll grant Mr. Moreno one point: President Biden may have overreacted in providing monetary pandemic relief to citizens when he entered office, but felt he had to overcompensate for the last guy, a so-called successful business person who'd bankrupted five companies, ran a phony online university, stole from his own charity and denied the pandemic while it was ravaging communities across the country.

John Crook, Eugene

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: President Biden, chicken farms, and the cost of hate: Eugene letters