Lessons from wars, Bishop William Murphy

Has the U.S.learned any lessons?

The past month, the insanity displayed by the so-called Iranian leadership is matched by the mercurial disposition that the Trump administration exudes “Ceasefire threatened,” News, April 9].

Each side threatens to blow up everything that the other side either cherishes, needs to survive, or simply wants to retain as a symbol of its almighty power or societal control. All of this without regard to the people that their governments claim to represent, those that are suffering the most.

This questionable war serves no purpose but to flex muscles on either side to see who blinks first. Enough already. Our congressional representatives, Republican or Democrat, need to wake up and take a broader worldview and not follow the leaders blindly into worldwide oblivion.

Lessons from Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are being ignored. The result can only be heartbreak, lives lost, and money wasted. We cannot continue to impose our values on other countries, and they cannot impose their values on us.

There will always be conflicting cultural morals that no war can ever resolve.

— Tom Licari, East Islip

Our previous administrations “gamed out” the distinct possibility that Iran, if attacked, would close the Strait of Hormuz. It tempered our actions. Not so this administration, and a 10-point plan would make a repressive, monstrous government appear the potential beneficiary of dictums that will only serve to make Iran more prosperous and more dangerous than ever.

We are sadly further away from any meaningful solution to a Middle East solution than memory serves.

This 10-point proposal may well simply be trading the lives of the future for the hollow promises of peace for today.

Not today, not next month or next year, but the 10-point plan, if adopted as stated, would only serve to sow the seeds for an even more monstrous, more world-terrorizing regime that likely would hold the world hostage to its whims and have the ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads to enforce that terrorization.

— Richard Peters, Merrick

In October 1962, I was just 14 but still remember the pervasive fear and tension during the Cuban missile crisis. A U.S. spy plane captured images of Soviet ballistic missile sites under construction in Cuba, capable of striking major U.S. cities. President John F. Kennedy responded with a naval blockade of Cuba, and the world was on the brink of nuclear war for 13 days. Finally, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev removed the missiles. This crisis was the result of Soviet aggression vs. the United States defending its borders from an imminent nuclear threat.

Fast-forward 63 years to our own recent aggressive actions in the Middle East and the bombastic, threatening language used by President Donald Trump. I was reliving that horrible time in 1962. We were on the “right side” of that crisis, but this crisis is of our own doing. What are our elected officials thinking, and when will we start learning from our history?

— Christopher Duffner, Sayville

Donald Trump stated, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” If Republicans, conservatives, Democrats, liberals, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, or anyone with warm blood in their veins, are not chilled, mortified, or angered by those words, then something is wrong. Will Republicans simply say, “It’s Trump being Trump”? This cannot be taken lightly.

— Jim Hickey, Westbury

An appreciation of Bishop Murphy

Bishop William Murphy deserves a note of appreciation for his leadership of our Diocese of Rockville Centre during turbulent times [“A ‘magnanimous’ leader,” News, April 8]. His loving, prayerful presence helped us heal when 9/11 struck just days after his installation.

Maligned (somewhat unfairly, in my view) for his connection to Boston, epicenter of the clergy sex abuse scandal, he was vilified over revelations of abuse here on Long Island, all of which occurred before he got here. Yet, in Christ-like fashion, he took upon himself the penitential suffering he knew the Catholic Church must endure for that horrific scandal.

He implemented reforms to protect children, remove abusive clergy, cooperate with law enforcement, improve screening of candidates for priesthood, and train Church personnel and volunteers to recognize and respond to signs of abuse.

He brought his lifelong social justice commitment to Long Island, promoting ministries and advocacy for marginalized populations, and access to affordable health care for all. He was a powerful voice defending life and religious freedom.

He strove to evangelize the faith and encouraged innovative approaches that revitalized various diocesan ministries.

His priestly formation efforts enhanced the already extraordinary quality of our diocesan priesthood, from whose ranks no fewer than seven men were subsequently named bishops and archbishops of other dioceses.

— Rick Hinshaw, Lynbrook

The writer is a former editor of The Long Island Catholic newspaper.