Letters to the editor March 5

Wolves are circling

We are not fooled by the sneaky and potentially corrupt actions by those who believe they control Montana politics. 

The obviously orchestrated retirement of Rep. Ryan Zinke with only a day or two left for candidates to file their candidacy; the prepared in advance instantaneous launch of Aaron Flint’s campaign website; the lined up endorsements coming within hours of the announcements; the immediate and ingratiating media coverage of Mr. Flint across the state; and ultimately the expected announcement of Trump’s total and complete endorsement show this was a backroom, coordinated, political ramrod initiated by the political “powers that be” in Montana to force another unwanted counterfeit conservative down the throats of decent hardworking Montanans.

Aaron Flint and his wife have worked on political campaigns for Zinke, Sen. Steve Daines and Gov. Greg Gianforte. He was hand selected long ago and groomed to be the heir apparent to Zinke.  Aaron Flint recently moved from Billings to the Flathead Valley to ensure he established residency requirements to campaign for the first congressional district seat, something he could not have done having residency in Billings.  

The political “powers that be,” not satisfied that their efforts for Flint would be sufficient to remove any true conservatives from the race, propped up Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen as a dark horse entrant into the race to pull votes away from other potential candidates.  Jacobsen is rumored to be Gianforte’s hand picked successor for governor when he is termed out.  

To say politics is dirty is an understatement. The Montana Republican Party has been hijacked and overrun by wealthy individuals looking to steal Montana’s treasure to enrich outside special interests and destroy our way of life.

This is a setup.  Montanans, beware.  Wolves are circling and snakes are hissing.

— Janet Walters, Bigfork

Iran regime

I have long respected Marc Racicot. I supported him as governor and I have often admired his seriousness about the Constitution. That is why I was troubled by his recent column arguing that Iran had not attacked the United States before recent American strikes.

Iran has been attacking Americans since the very beginning of this regime. In 1979, the Iranian government backed the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held Americans hostage for 444 days. I remember that embarrassing event: It was an act of state aggression and humiliation aimed straight at the United States.

Since then, Iran has waged war the way cowards prefer to fight it, through proxies. Racicot suggests self defense requires direct Iranian acts. But proxy warfare is warfare. When Iran funds, arms, trains and directs forces that kill Americans, Iran is responsible in every moral sense and in any strategic sense that matters.

The death toll is not theoretical. Even using only widely cited, conservative figures, Iran and its proxies have killed at least 880 Americans since 1979. That includes 241 U.S. service members murdered in the Beirut Marine barracks bombing, 19 U.S. airmen killed at Khobar Towers and at least 603 U.S. troops killed in Iraq by Iran backed militias. Those numbers alone should end the claim that there is no evidence of Iranian hostilities.

The Israeli toll is even more staggering. Hamas murdered more than 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.  Hezbollah has killed Israelis in major wars and cross border attacks, including about 165 Israelis killed in the 2006 war, and since October 2023, Israeli reporting citing the Prime Minister’s Office has counted dozens more killed by Hezbollah fire.  

Iran is the common pipeline of money, weapons, training and ideological fuel. To pretend these are not Iranian acts because Tehran uses intermediaries is to reward the very method Iran chose to escape accountability.

I share one of Racicot’s concerns. Congress should not be ignored. Any president who initiates major hostilities should seek political support and articulate clear objectives. Timing and process matter, and this administration has not earned trust on either.

But none of that changes the core truth. Iran has been a violent, hateful regime for decades, chanting death to America while financing murder. The West has waited and endured and hoped it would moderate. It did not. This effort to remove Iran as a strategic threat to the United States, Israel and the wider free world is long overdue.

We can debate strategy. We can demand constitutional legitimacy. But we should not indulge the false premise that Iran has not attacked us. It has. Repeatedly. Through proxies. With American blood to prove it.

— Brant Horn, Whitefish

Trump’s courage

I am sure my liberal critics will criticize this letter, but the actions of President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu to strike a mortal blow to Iran and decapitate its terrorist leadership finally brings an end to decades of weak-kneed dealings with a regime that has killed and crippled thousands of our soldiers and innocents.

Did Presidents Obama and Biden really believe the repeated lies and deceit of Iran’s leadership in declaring no interest in a nuclear weapon as their centrifuges were spinning their way to highly enriched uranium? All the while giving them billions of dollars to fund worldwide terrorist attacks through their proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and anyone else willing to kill Americans and Jews.    

The Supreme Leader Khamenei and many of his top brass have been killed by Israel, and the United States and Israel are decimating Iran’s offensive capabilities while the Democrats demand a vote to allow Trump to do what he has already started and what must be done to protect us all.  

Democrats and one feckless Republican who hate our country and want to see us become like Europe, bankrupt morally and financially while bowing to radical Islam terror and socialist ideology, invoke the War Powers Act of 1973, an act which Nixon unsuccessfully vetoed and which presidents from Reagan to Trump ignored.  

Leaders like Trump and Netanyahu have the courage to do what is right to protect their citizens despite the pathetic attempts of politicians to undermine them. God bless them, our troops in harm’s way and the United States of America and Israel. 

The next step is up to the Iranian people.  Hopefully they have the courage to take their country back.  

— David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls