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SATURDAY January 24, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels January 8, 2004 Saddam killed far fewer Iraqis than our leaders Now that Saddam Hussein has been captured, George W. Bush is crowing for a trial and telling the world that Hussein should face the "ultimate penalty" (execution). I'm against the death penalty, but if Hussein did kill tens of thousands of Iraqis, he surely deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. However, this leads to the question: what of the men who are responsible for killing far more Iraqis, especially children, than even Hussein's worst critics accuse him of? I'm referring to George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush. Between the two wars against Iraq and the crippling, genocidal sanctions that were maintained for over 10 years in between, these three men are directly responsible for the deaths of at least 1.5 million Iraqis, 500,000 of them children age five and under. There is also the matter of the use of weapons containing depleted uranium in both wars, insuring that Iraq will be radioactive for thousands of years to come. Whatever penalty Saddam Hussein is given, "ultimate" or not, the last three occupants of the White House should be next in line. Fair is fair, right? Brad Jones Ashland Abstinence is the only means to avoid mad cow The government has yet another crisis to deal with the Bovine Spongiform Encepha-lopathy (BSE), also know as mad cow disease, discovery in our country. The USDA is proclaiming this is the first ever mad cow case in our country. After discovering the USDA admits to only testing 20,000 out of the 40 million cows slaughtered in our country, a meager 0.5 percent, I will grant them that it is likely the first ever documented case. Another aspect of the issue the beef industry is trying to keep quiet is that the cow was a "downed" animal. What this means is the animal was so sick, diseased and crippled it could not even walk to slaughter, but had to be dragged. The USDA has been well aware for years that downed animals are at high risk of having BSE. Several organizations have been working to ban the slaughter of downed animals in the U.S.; see www.nodowners.org for details. An even more maddening aspect to the BSE outbreak, is our society's approach to stopping it. I have heard much coverage of ways to stop the spread of disease from improving the mechanics of ripping the spinal cord out of the animal before it is smashed in a grinder to stronger enforcement of the 1997 U.S. ban on feeding cows to other cows, a still common practice despite the ban. In all of the talk I have heard no mention ceasing to eat them, a foolproof way of stopping the disease. Amy Miller Bunk Ashland Forest Service report misleads on local opinion The Forest Service analysis of public comments on the Ski Ashland Expansion is yet another example of their willingness to manipulate information to acquire a desired result. It works only to further destroy their credibility. The Forest Service clearly admitted to disregarding a substantial number of Sierra Club postcards because two boxes were checked; one for limited expansion and one for zero expansion. Sierra Club postcards are obviously opposition statements and many would support either limited or zero expansion; all Sierra Club postcards need to be counted as opposition votes. The Forest Service continued by combining votes for variations of the expansion into the middle branch; while dividing votes for alternatives that avoid this sensitive drainage. By combining votes in this manner, it insured a majority vote in favor of expansion; this is unacceptable. Last, comments to the Ashland City Council showed 65 percent opposed while 35 percent supported expansion. We need a specific analysis of comments from Ashland citizens. This is our municipal watershed and our drinking water. It is our responsibility to pay to remove sediment from the reservoir and restore the area if they economically fail once again. The citizens of Ashland have too many potential liabilities to not analyze our opinion independently. Regardless, the EPA comments have harshly and broadly criticized Forest Service science in the DEIS, including computer modeling and dated soil studies. It is time for the Forest Service to realize that they have reached a dead end. Without a long-term, sound soil study, this project will never move through court. The inadequate, scientifically unsound DEIS needs to be withdrawn; let's end this costly process. Eric Navickas Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams