Letter of the Day: If Republicans were wrong, why haven't Democrats been right?

In regard to Henry M. Gordon's letter in the Jan. 29 R&L, my take on history is not based on a "complete reliance on the Republican line."

I remember one set of ideas put forth by conservative Americans, which included Republicans and Democrats. Another set of ideas was put forth by liberal Democrats and some liberal Republicans.

The conservative ideas were that America should negotiate from a position of strength, therefore there was a need to rebuild our military.

The liberal ideas were that America was already too strong and should agree to eliminate many weapons and not build any more. This would cause the Soviet Union to do likewise.

History is clear on which set of ideas successfully brought down the Soviet Union.

It is true the missile defense shield did not work during President Reagan's time.

However, the Soviets thought it would work, and they made a furious effort to build up their military, which caused their economic collapse.

Mr. Gordon stated that "The missile shield failed in every publicized test and we have spent and are spending billions on something we are not sure will work."

Maybe Mr. Gordon should listen to CNN, because if he had, he would have known about the CNN headline of Jan. 27, 2007, which said, "Missile Defense Shield Aced as Dummy Target Hit." This test was conducted in the South Pacific.

Mr. Gordon further stated that "we started a war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence."

Where did that intel come from? Most, if not all of it, came from the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (search Thomas.Loc.gov).

President Bush relied heavily on this intel when making his case for the Iraq war. Bush lied?

The Democratic Congress has the constitutional duty to impeach him. Why have they not done so?

Paul A. Lowe
Hiddenite