Opinion A5 The Iola Register
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
~ Journalism that makes a difference
Letters to the editor
Humboldt
Back to the drawing board for bike lane Humboldt council members last week rejected by the narrowest of margins (4-3) a proposal to mark a multi-user lane on Ninth State to provide what proponents said would be safer use of the street by primarily bicycle riders. The Register never argues with local democratic decisions after the fact. In this case it would be good to consider alternatives. The reason is kids, and adults, will continue to ride bicycles on Ninth Street, and some provisions should be made to make their use as safe as possible. Kids being kids often are wont to take up more of a street than they need; motorists usually are cognizant, and our fervent hope is that will be enough to prevent a tragic accident. Not marking a multi-user lane isn’t going to change reality. So, what should be done? Chief of Police Brian Dillow is receptive to ideas that might help educate youngsters, as are parents. Riding a bicycle safely on public streets is one that can’t be over-emphasized. Sharrows were mentioned, and they would give some warning to motorists that Ninth Street is a route preferred by bicyclists going about town for any number of reasons, including pure pleasure. City Administrator Cole Herder told the Register bicycle racks at Humboldt’s swimming pool often overflow. Being at the south end of town, a frequent route to the pool is Ninth Street. Some streets already have the bicycle graphic, as do a number in Iola. For visitors they give a route — somewhat interrupted today, from the end of the Southwind Trail toward Humboldt’s remarkable Neosho River Park. Adding sharrows on Ninth Street — and others leading to the park — would seem to be a given, at least as an indicator for someone who knows nothing of Humboldt’s geography. Rebuilding and adding sidewalks on one side of Ninth Street, with the usual grass strip along the parking as a buffer, was broached at the council meeting. That probably would be excessively expensive and in some cases require accord from private property owners. Compassion dictates continued dialogue and inventive proposals. Thrive Allen County, which encouraged the multi-user lane from the start, should be enlisted to help come up with options. Part of Thrive’s mission is to improve the health of the county’s residents. Riding a bicycle, walking and jogging are three forms of exercise in which a good many people — young, old and in-between — may participate at no or marginal cost. What proponents should do is not accept the multiuser lane rejection as finality, rather continue to think of ways to make Humboldt more of a destination of visitors and as conducive as possible to residents whose interests are hitched to two wheels. — Bob Johnson
Dear editor,
The tragic, unsurprising fall of Aleppo The slaughter of civilians in Aleppo last week may have shocked the conscience of the world, but no one should have been surprised. Syria’s Assad regime has always treated opponents savagely, and its assault on Aleppo, once the country’s largest city, has been coming for a long time. When Secretary of State John F. Kerry and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power pleaded with Assad to observe the niceties of civilized warfare, they knew their words would likely have little impact. “What has happened already in Aleppo is unconscionable,” Kerry said. “The Assad regime is actually carrying out nothing short of a massacre.” “Are you truly incapable of shame?” Power asked the Syrians and their allies. “Is there no act of barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under your skin?” But their anguish was real — in part because both Kerry and Power have long urged President Obama to intervene more forcefully in Syria, only to be rebuffed again and again. The U.S. inability to stave off the fall of Aleppo was the tragic but predictable product of a mismatch between Obama’s rhetoric and his commitments. Soon after the uprising against Assad began in 2011, Obama declared the United States on the side of the rebels and announced that the dictator’s days were numbered. The president never backed up those words with action, though, because he believed there was no compelling U.S. interest that justified direct intervention in the civil war. He insisted that there was no military solution to the conflict, and dispatched Kerry to seek ceasefires and peace talks. Assad and his allies in Russia and Iran decided, to the contrary, that there was a military solution — and, so far, they are turning out to be right. The winners are the Assad regime, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Lebanese Hezbollah who supplied many of the ground troops, and Russia, which provided air power and special operations forces. The city was the last major stronghold of the moderate rebels whom the United States had been supporting. Their defeat sends many of their surviving fighters into territory controlled by the more radical Conquest Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
Doyle McManus The Los Angeles Times The battle in Aleppo also took Syrian troops away from the eastern front where they’ve been sporadically fighting Islamic State, allowing that group to reconquer Palmyra. So the fall of Aleppo is not only a humanitarian disaster; it’s a setback for hard-nosed U.S. interests, too. In Obama’s defense, it’s true that there were never
State Department expert on Syria. “The administration worried that any military action would risk a conflict with Russia.” Meanwhile, Kerry doggedly negotiated a series of ceasefire agreements, none of which took hold. Although the Russians played along, they never restrained the Syrian military or its Iranian and Lebanese allies on the ground. The Obama administration didn’t start the Syrian rebellion and doesn’t bear sole responsibility for the disasters that followed. The Assad regime and its allies, after all, are the ones who battered Aleppo with pitiless force.
The Russian intervention shut the door on U.S. action to protect civilians. The administration worried that any military action would risk a conflict with Russia.
Dear editor,
I was not quite 10 when we were swept into World War II. In early 1942 we didn’t know who would come out on top. It wasn’t the “piece of cake” some writers today write about, knowing the ending. Things were frightening and dark. What we lived day to day can never be adequately conveyed. But somewhere a crippled boy wrote a song called “There’s a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere,” that helped us gather up our broken parts and defend democracy. The words of President Roosevelt encouraged us all just as did his fireside chats on the radio during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Our flag was a precious, sacred thing then, perhaps the only flag that spelled freedom and democracy. I am glad and proud to be an American. Eisenhower said we would be living under great restrictions if the AXIS powers had won. Sincerely, Jim Brownrigg, Iola, Kan.
— Frederic Hoff, The Atlantic Council
easy, cost-free alternatives to his policy of restraint. But it’s not true, as he also argued, that the only alternative was a full-scale U.S. invasion. Obama aides spent years proposing less-costly alternatives, only to be turned down. In 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta proposed arming moderate rebels who were already receiving aid from other Arab countries, but Obama rejected the idea. In 2013, after Assad used chemical weapons against civilians, Obama announced that he would retaliate with U.S. military force — but had second thoughts. In 2014, after Assad began dropping crude barrel bombs into rebel-held neighborhoods, aides proposed supplying anti-aircraft weapons to the insurgents, but they were denied. Instead, in a half-measure, the United States sent anti-tank missiles, which helped the rebels win a series of victories on the ground and brought the war to an apparent stalemate in 2015. At that point, though, Russia’s Vladimir Putin intervened, surprising the White House by sending air force units to back up Assad’s troops. “The Russian intervention shut the door on U.S. action to protect civilians,” said Frederic C. Hof of the Atlantic Council, a former
This letter is to recognize two of Iola’s city employees for their job performance. At about 3:45 a.m. on Sunday I awoke and noticed my house felt colder than usual and that my electricity was off. The outside temperature was -2 degrees, not a good time to lose my furnace heat. The house air temperature was dropping rapidly. I noted my housepowered clock hands stopped at 2:50 a.m. I had been without electricity for about one hour. I called the police department and was informed that help was on the way as they had already received a power outrage report for 924 N. Washington. I noted that street lights were on at locations close to my house and reached the conclusion that the power transformer on the utility pole on my alley must have burned out. The Iola utility truck arrived at 4:12 a.m., the bad transformer was down in about 20 minutes, the new one was installed and power restored at 5:10 a.m. Due to the quick work of the two Iola employees, my power, along with my neighbors’, was off only 2 hours 20 minutes. I don’t know who those two men were, but their performance of duty during extremely cold conditions was, in my mind, “above and beyond the call of duty,” to use a familiar military phrase. I did holler a “Thank You” out the door. The return was “You are welcome.” Those gentlemen certainly earned their overtime pay as they have done the City of Iola proud. Paul L. Zirjacks, Iola, Kan.
But officials acknowledge privately that Syria has been the greatest foreign policy failure of their eight years in office. With only a month remaining in Obama’s term, there’s little more for them to do but continue pleading for an orderly evacuation of Aleppo — and to prepare their briefings for President-elect Trump. Trump has suggested he might try to end the Syrian war by allying with Russia and leaving Assad in place. His national security advisor, Michael T. Flynn, has said he also wants to reduce Iran’s influence. “Good luck,” said Hof. “We’re still coming at this from the sidelines, without much leverage to get what we want. That’s been the problem all along.”
Refugees from Syria
Syria
Millions of Syrians have fled the country since 2012 due to ongoing violence, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.
Registered Syrian refugees In millions 5
4
3
Dec. 19: 4.8 million
2
1
2012
2013
2014
Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
2015 2016 Graphic: TNS