yourviews
MILITARY
OFFICER
MARCH 2010 $4.75 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA
War’s Toll
Soldiers speak candidly about the demands of citizenship they face while in “death’s gray land” 78
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Looming Medicare/ TRICARE cuts need action now 29
PLANNING TO RETIRE SOON?
MOAA helps you answer some of your questions 51
ACTION!
Get a backstage pass to the making
of The Pacific 88
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The Pacific
While I eagerly await HBO’s The Pacific and fully acknowledge that nothing can dilute the magnificent record of the Marine Corps in World War II, a little perspective remains in order. During that war, the U.S. Army 8th Air Force in Europe suf- fered 27,000 officers and men killed in action — more than the entire U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific.
—Lt. Col. Wayne A. Silkett, USA-Ret. via e-mail
More on Global Warming
I am deeply disappointed and puz- zled that in spite of the overwhelm- ing scientific evidence supporting global warming/climate change, so many supposedly intelligent people (including some MOAA members) continue to ignore scientific findings but readily accept the unsubstanti- ated postings of climate change deniers. As a rough estimate, human activity has dumped nearly a trillion
1 4 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R MAY 2 0 1 0
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tons of airborne pollutants into the Earth’s atmo- sphere since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and we continue to add to this at the rate of some 90
million tons daily. How can anyone not believe that this is going to have a deleterious effect on the atmosphere? Given the individualism and
inherent skepticism of most scien- tists, there is a remarkable degree of consensus among climatologists on the reality both of global warming and the influence of human activity therein. Also, given the enormity of their tasking and the large number of people involved, I also find it re- markable that to date only two de- monstrable errors have been found in the 2007 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Subsequent re- search indicates that if anything, this report underestimates the magnitude and potential consequences of cli- mate change. Skeptics/deniers often use local
weather anomalies (such as the re- cent East Coast snowfalls) as “proof” that global warming doesn’t exist. However, available scientific data
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WWW.MOAA.ORG
“Nothing can dilute the magnifi- cent record of the Ma- rine Corps in World
War II.”
— Lt. Col. Wayne A. Silkett, USA-Ret.
clearly demonstrate that the past decade (2000-09) was the warmest ever on Earth since modern tem- perature measurements began in 1880 and that 2009 was only a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest year yet — see http://
tinyurl.com/yat8qda. Then, although this January was seen as unusually cold in much of the U.S., on a global scale, it was the second-hottest Janu- ary on record. … I suggest interested persons delve
into the scientific literature, starting with a history of the science itself at
www.aip.org/history/climate.
—Maj. Edward S. Saugstad, USA-Ret. Sinks Grove,
W.Va.
Flag Protection
It is surprising that a retired lieuten- ant colonel would know so little of our Constitution as to believe burn- ing the American flag is “speech” [Lt. Col. Richard H. Sugg, USA-Ret., Your Views, March 2010] and to think so little of the will of our people as to be- lieve they do not have an obligation to correct errors of the Supreme Court. Contrary to Lieutenant Colonel
Sugg, the flag amendment does not protect the flag! And burning the flag is not “speech” per the First Amendment. (Lieutenant Colonel Sugg needs to read the amend- ment.) The author of the First Amendment, James Madison, said so. And so does common sense. The flag amendment simply takes away from the court the power over our flag and returns it to the people, where it resided for over 200 years, and allows them to protect it should they so choose. Would Lieutenant Colonel Sugg
deny the people this right? Does Lieutenant Colonel Sugg really be- lieve burning Old Glory is “speech,”
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