Can't Miele find anything good to say about Obama?

As per usual, Frank Miele has started off the New Year being Mr. Negative of the Flathead, hoping to sway as many of his “Editor’s 2 cents” readers as possible to his way of thinking and to join him in his shameful unjustified attacks of the Democratic Party in general and in particular, President Obama.

One would think that with so many things looking good now domestically in large part due to the efforts of Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Congress, Frank could find something good to say about our president. Like unemployment and gas prices being lower than any time in recent memory. Energy production in the U.S. is at an all-time high and we’re on our way to becoming energy independent. The government bailout of the U.S. auto industry under Mr. Obama saved that industry and it is now booming and has paid back every cent loaned them. Plus, millions more Americans now have the peace of mind that having good health insurance brings because of the Affordable Care Act. Wall Street sets new records almost daily. Main Street could be doing a lot better if only the party of “NO” would help even a little.

Gun manufacturing and sales, and thus unemployment in Montana are all at record levels. Yes, because Obama didn’t take away our guns as most Republicans and Obama haters predicted. Our young men and women in the military are not being killed on a daily basis now because two wars that have dragged on entirely too long are winding down, and yes, the president’s carefully thought-out decisions and policies, without a doubt saved our country from another Republican caused depression.

I think that many readers of Frank’s “2 cents” column mistake his opinions as being facts. I hope that is not the case because Frank has been so wrong, so often. For example: Climate change. It would appear to me by his writings that he knows more about the subject than hundreds of scientists trained in that field and whose findings are printed regularly in his own newspaper. Don’t you read or believe what is printed in your own newspaper, Frank?

Some of these very scientists just a few decades ago discovered that Freon 12 and similar products “man made,” were eating a hole in the earth’s ozone layer. Working together Democrats and Republicans passed legislation that banned the use of those products and got worldwide cooperation to do the same. And, now those same scientists are reporting that because of man’s actions, the damage has been reversed and the ozone layer is repairing itself.

The same effort needs to be made to slow and then reverse the effects of global warming. Like the ozone layer, it will take decades to accomplish, but it won’t happen until the crooks on Wall Street all have to put sump pumps in their basements to pump out the rising ocean waters. That’s when they will tell the Republican stooges they bought their congressional seats for to start working with the Democrats to pass climate-change legislation.

Frank, you blame Obama for the dismantling of the U.S. military at a time when the world is more dangerous than ever. First of all the world is more dangerous than ever because of Bush’s invasion of Iraq, not because of weapons of mass destruction, but to occupy a country to protect an oil source. There were no terrorists in Iraq, no al-Qaida, no ISIS, and no reason whatsoever to invade that sovereign country.

Then came the torturing of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other places. Why don’t you tell your readers that Bush made the deal with Malaki for our armies to be out of Iraq by a certain date? Why do you insist on blaming the problems there now on Obama? The hornet’s nest that Bush kicked open with the Iraq invasion has now spread all across the Middle East and is causing the deaths of innocent people worldwide. We are in the midst of a Bush-caused civil war in the Middle East and Obama has had to deal with it.

You should also know, Frank, that the dismantling of our military was done day after day, month after month, and year after year by fighting two wars in harsh desert conditions. Equipment, like men, can go only so long without proper maintenance. Soldiers were sent back for two, three, four or more deployments. Remember, Frank, when the army’s enlistment quotas could not be filled every month and the standards had to be lowered in order to get enough volunteers to serve? Do you remember just recently how Republican Sen. Coburn from Oklahoma blocked a bill that would have allowed the V.A. to hire more psychiatrists and psychologists to try to slow the increasing number of veteran suicides? I guess this pathetic man who is also a doctor thinks it’s cheaper to bury a veteran who commits suicide rather than give him the care he needs and so very much deserves.

The invasion of Afghanistan was justified, but, like everything else Bush had anything to do with, it was poorly planned. A few brigades of specially trained, specially equipped, special forces could have done in months what an entire army hasn’t been able to do in 13 years. If you remember, Frank, the Russians had the same problem when they invaded Afghanistan with their army.

The truth is, Frank, that Bush wore our army out in Iraq and Afghanistan and rather than dismantle it like you state, the Obama administration has resurrected it and it is now better than ever before.

And finally for now, Frank, I noticed that at long last, you stopped kicking that dead horse Benghazi. You were wrong all along about that being an Obama administration cover-up.

Keep trying, Frank. Sooner or later you’re going to get something right. Might help if you start reading your own newspaper rather than watching Fox News, “the Republican propaganda network.”

Haines is a resident of Columbia Falls.