LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Sense of history needed in editorial concerning armaments

How could you in good conscious compare a nuclear armed Israel with a nuclear armed Iran as you did Saturday by reprinting the editorial from the The Messenger that argued that all countries should be treated the same concerning their armaments? Do you have no sense of history? There was a Holocaust as you surly recall, and the Iranian leaders have a stated goal of wiping the Jewish state off the face of the earth. Is not one holocaust enough?
Israel is a democracy and its recent invasion of Lebanon which the editorial mentions was necessitated by constant rocket and terrorist attacks directed by Hezbollah, which ironically translates as “Party of God.” Israel also gave Gaza back to the Palestinians only to see it become a haven for armed attacks against them. This is not a world in which you can safely play the moral equivalency card. The United States, Great Britain, France, India, Israel, China and Russia having nukes, regrettable as that is in the case of the later two, is not the same as Pakistan, North Korea and Iran having them. You might as well say that a police officer has no more right to be armed than does a felon if one is to follow your flawed logic.
As to the so called military-industrial complex, those of us who have actually been in harm’s way during war are very thankful for the technological advantage furnished to us by American industry. Having been an infantry officer, I know that war is terrible, but there are things worth protecting and fighting for. Israel’s continued existence is one of them.

Kelly M. Morgan
Florence