Iran column: Wishful thinking
9/27/2012Bill Keller's op-ed column about a nuclear Iran is mired in false assumptions and wishful thinking ("A nuclear Iran: Strike now, wait, or hope for diplomacy?" Sept. 12).
No other nuclear state, rogue or otherwise, has repeatedly threatened to annihilate another sovereign state, as Iran has. Is it so hard to imagine that Iran would consider a nuclear war with Israel winnable?
Mr. Keller's assertion that nuclear weapons programs are neither cheap nor easy flies in the face of historical experience. Even impoverished North Korea apparently managed to do this.
Mr. Keller's notion that if it is struck, Iran will try harder to build nukes is utter nonsense. Iran is clearly trying as hard as it can now.
Wishful thinking of Mr. Keller's sort has allowed this situation to become far too dangerous. There are no easy options left. We can pay a lot today or a lot more tomorrow.
Rob Vincent
Perrysburg
Sobriety checks miss the point
I don't understand how 516 people can be stopped and interrupted in their daily routine, just because they happened to be on the wrong street at the wrong time ("One DWI arrest made during 4-hour sobriety checkpoint," Sept. 1).
This Lucas County task force protected the community from two people driving with suspended licenses, one driving without a license, and one driving with expired plates.
I would rather see money and manpower put to use catching violent criminals. Evidently it is much easier to create a criminal than it is to apprehend one.
Karl Murphy
South Detroit Avenue
Better way needed to set price of gas
The biggest con game in this country's history is how the price of gasoline is manipulated without having much to do with supply and demand.
When Hurricane Isaac hit the New Orleans area in August, the price of gas went up almost immediately here because of the fear that some refineries would be shut. Wouldn't it take more than a few days to determine if there was a supply problem?
Why do we have to depend on what happens in other parts of the country? We have refineries in northwest Ohio.
High gas prices affect us all. There has to be a more honest way to determine the price.
Dan Seemann
Maumee
Transgender ruling baffling
A convicted murderer serving a life term in prison claimed to be a transgender inmate living in an all-male prison as a female ("Judge: Taxpayers to give inmate sex reassignment," Sept. 5).
The prisoner sued -- at taxpayer expense -- the Massachusetts Department of Correction for treatment for gender identity disorder and won. The federal judge ruled the prisoner was entitled to sex reassignment surgery, again at taxpayer expense.
Since when is a convicted murderer entitled to this expensive surgery? The world is going crazy and our legal system is part of it.
Gene Wilbarger
Oregon