Ed Case clarifies position on Iraq

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Warrior fans were no-shows at bowl game

Watching the Hawaii-Tulane game on TV, my wife and I were having a cold, white Christmas. We couldn't help but notice that Aloha Stadium wasn't filled to capacity to support the Warriors in a bowl game.

What's the matter with fans? Your team went to its own little Super Bowl. Why not go to the game and show how much you love to see them play?

Don't take for granted what you have in Hawaii. We are local folks who moved to the mainland, and we would have done anything to be sitting in that beautiful stadium in 82-degree weather on Christmas Day.

Kyle and Charlene Wirth
Canton, Ohio

Careless driving costs lives, too

Your Dec. 20 editorial quoted some interesting numbers on traffic deaths and alcohol-related traffic deaths. A little math tells us that, according to those numbers, while alcohol-related traffic death rates have dropped from 1.64 deaths per 100 million miles traveled in 1982 to 0.63 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, all other traffic death rates have changed little in the same time, from 1.09 deaths per 100 million miles traveled to 0.95 deaths per 100 million miles traveled.

Since more traffic deaths are non-alcohol-related than are alcohol-related, perhaps it is time to focus more attention on reducing that death rate as well, and holding all drivers accountable for causing traffic deaths, whether or not alcohol is a factor.

MADD, in addition to its impact on lowering alcohol-related traffic death rates, has taught us that education and accountability can be effective tools. It is no less painful to lose a loved one to a careless driver than it is to lose one to a drunk driver.

Nobu Nakamoto

Case is tireless worker on even small issues

As a longtime member of the Manoa Neighborhood Board, I know all too well that solving community problems -- from too many potholes to not enough parking spaces -- can be tedious work.

Ed Case knew this, too, yet his participation at our monthly meetings was truly remarkable. On numerous occasions, after grueling three-hour sessions, he would still be there -- sometimes alone in the audience -- listening to our concerns and offering expert advice.

His reports indicated that he was putting in the same long hours at the Legislature on our behalf.

Matters before the U.S. Congress are certainly more weighty than the issues of our valley. If Ed handles these with the same degree of interest and dedication that he displayed back home, he will make an outstanding contribution to Hawaii and our nation.

C. Richard Fassler

Issues of compassion and race define GOP

Politics is an art form of hypocrisy! Both parties are practitioners, but the Republican Party has been adept in using racial issues to win elections. That is how they captured the South!

Now they masquerade as being repentant. Are they truly the party of Lincoln or the hard-right conservatives? Trent Lott's remarks at the Strom Thurmond birthday party exposed the underlying racially biased attitude of the Republicans since the Goldwater candidacy in 1964. Note that the audience at the party applauded Lott's comments.

We shall see the real soul of the Republicans and their leaders when they present their social and economic agenda in the next year. For instance, do they defend or oppose the University of Michigan's affirmative action program case before the Supreme Court?

Let see how the tradewinds blow!

Anthony Locascio

Let love light the way in the new year

Here is a New Year's thought for those who wish to make 2003 their best year of all.

For the great and small ... the good and bad,
The young and old ... the sad and glad,
Are asking today, "Is life fulfilling as can be?"
And the answer is only in "loving" and "giving."
For only "love" can make man kind
And kindness of heart brings peace of mind,
And by giving love we can start this year
To lift the clouds of hate and fear so we can
All prosper in the new year.

Arsenio Ramirez Pelayo
Pearlridge

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Ed Case clarifies his position on Iraq

The Star-Bulletin's Dec. 22 article "Candidates for Congress disagree over Iraqi war" misstated my position on Iraq. I do not want or support war with Iraq, nor do I support an unconditional unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq. My position always has been that:

(1) We must work with the international community, through the United Nations, to require full compliance by Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein, with long-standing U.N. resolutions, to which Iraq agreed. These require elimination of Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs and allowing full and unrestricted U.N. inspections.

(2) We must work through the international community via the U.N. to enforce those existing U.N. resolutions should Iraq ignore them and either refuse inspections or develop nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. This has been the approach taken by our government to date, and I support it.

My Democratic opponents, Matt Matsunaga and Colleen Hanabusa, agree with me this far. But I clearly disagree with them on the far more difficult question: What should we do if:

(1) Hussein refuses further inspections or clearly is operating a program to develop weapons of mass destruction in violation of U.N. resolutions, or

(2) We have solid evidence of a clear and present danger to U.S. citizens or our allies (for example, those weapons are suddenly massed in western Iraq within striking distance of Israel, as happened in 1990), or

(3) Our best efforts to obtain U.N. enforcement action fail (for example, a single member country of the U.N. Security Council vetoes such action).

In these circumstances, Ma-tsunaga and Hanabusa would rule out any defensive action by our country and others to eliminate the imminent danger, essentially trusting Hussein not to proceed. Given his invasion of Kuwait, killing of thousands of his own countrymen, sponsorship of international terrorism (if not of al-Qaida, undeniably others) and decade-long evasion of existing U.N. resolutions, I don't trust Hussein with the lives of my fellow citizens and others.

So if, despite our best efforts through the U.N., Hussein presented an unquestioned clear and present danger to us, and if our president, after full disclosure to and consultation with Congress, sought support for a limited defensive action to remove that danger, I would view us as having little choice but to proceed to assure protection of ourselves and others and to avoid outright war.

Congressman Ed Case
Second District
Candidate for re-election

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