Author Archive

Rethinking support for Ukraine

Posted: August 15, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

With the Biden administration proposing another $24 billion to support Ukraine’s military, I think it may be time to reassess my enthusiastic backing of the fight against Russia.

The United States is by far the largest donor to Ukraine. Congress has already approved $113 billion in military, economic, humanitarian, and other aid for Ukraine, including around $70 billion for security, intelligence, and additional war-fighting costs. An estimated 90 percent of that total has already been spent or designated to be spent.

In the past year, overall support for Ukraine has waned. According to a poll released by CNN last week, fifty-five percent of Americans now oppose more aid to Ukraine. The party breakdown is stark—71 percent of Republicans oppose additional assistance, while 62 percent of Democrats favor it.

Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. His invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea and the subsequent attacks a year ago, is anathema to world peace and security.

But is the wholesale support of Ukraine worth the cost and the potential downside of exhausting the ability of the United States to keep its military ready to fight against other threats, such as China?

The Heritage Foundation has put together a rather convincing case against continuing aid to Ukraine at its current levels.

In a recent opinion piece, Kevin Roberts, the president of the foundation, wrote the following:

–“It is simply untenable for Americans to bear the vast majority of the burden among our allies in standing up to threatening states.”

–“Our concentration on Ukraine has undermined our ability to address the worsening military situation in Asia, especially around Taiwan.”

–“However just and noble Ukraine’s cause is, continuing to focus on it at the expense of confronting and deterring China is not wise, moral, or conservative.”

Roberts makes a variety of good points. I take away three important ones. First, U.S. foreign policy must focus mainly on China’s economic and military threat rather than Russia’s. Second, the United States must take a strategic approach toward Ukraine rather than depleting American military stockpiles. Third, Russia poses a more significant threat to Europe than the United States, so NATO countries should assume a substantial burden of the cost. See https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/the-correct-conservative-approach-ukraine-shifts-the-focus-china#

I’m not arguing that we should cut off Ukraine. We just need to figure out a better strategy there and an even better one in dealing with China.

Muncy’s murder mystery

Posted: August 8, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

By Christopher Harper 

Unfortunately, almost every city and town have an unsolved murder mystery. 
 
Here in Muncy, the case happened in 1997 with the murder of 10-year-old Joline Faye Witt. I learned about the case when Pennsylvania Crimewatch recently posted a $5,000 reward for information about the murder. 

The case is receiving some attention again, as Pennsylvania Crimewatch recently posted a $5,000 reward is being offered for information on the homicide case. 

Witt stayed at her mother’s home in Muncy the night she disappeared on July 27, 1997. According to Pennsylvania Crimewatch, she was last seen by her mother at approximately 2 a.m. sleeping in a bedroom at the home at 1 Grant Street. Witt had been sleeping in bed with her cousin, who discovered early that morning that Witt was gone. There were no signs of struggle or forced entry into the home. 

The community came together to search for Witt. Volunteers, Witt’s family, and police searched wooded county areas for over a month. On Sept. 6, 1997, two hikers discovered Witt’s badly decomposed body on Bald Eagle Mountain about 40 miles west of Muncy. A forensic pathologist determined that the young girl had been murdered, according to Crimewatch. 

Although several suspects were interviewed, some believed the girl’s uncle, Bruce Longenecker, was her killer. Witt, whose parents were divorced, stayed with her mother, Linda, on weekends in the home she shared with her brother Bruce and sister-in-law, Christina. Longenecker committed suicide three months after his niece disappeared.  

Fifteen years after Witt’s disappearance, Kenneth Mains was hired as a Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office detective. Eric Lindhard, the district attorney at the time, asked him to review Witt’s case. “I talked to witnesses, family members, and I presented him my findings,” Mains said recently. “[It]is my opinion the killer is still out there.” 

“[M]y analysis of the case pointed me to a different suspect still alive and living in Lycoming County today,” Mains said. 

“I have worked side by side with Jolene’s sister since 2012 to help solve this case, and that is where my loyalty is and always will be…with families of victims,” Mains said. 

Mains, who has had a true crime show on the History Channel and a YouTube series called “Unsolved No More,” said he is still in communication with the Witt family. “I hope the new reward will lead to this case being solved once and for all. Especially for the investigators who worked the case, the community that has endured, and the family who still suffers from this tragedy,” Mains said. 

Anyone with information about the case may contact the Pennsylvania State Police in Montoursville at 570 368-5700 or the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or online. All callers to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward. 

“Fight malarkey”

Posted: August 1, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

“Hi, it’s Carole King.
I’ve known Joe Biden since he was a senator. I was proud to support him in 2020, and I’m asking you to join me early in the battle to reelect him in 2024.”

It took me a while to remember who Carole King was. I finally recalled a singer who released an album in the 1970s that mainly appealed to young women. “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” wasn’t exactly my kind of tune.

It took me even longer to determine why Ms. King and the Democrats thought I wanted to contribute to the Biden campaign.

I haven’t voted for a Democrat since 1980. Yes, I made the youthful mistake of thinking Jimmy Carter would be better than Ronald Reagan.

But Ms. King’s email and a subsequent one from the Biden regime made me happy because they showed how out of touch the Democrats were.

Ms. King offers the following:
–President Biden has been effective in leading the American people out of chaos and confusion to greater stability and confidence.
–No other presidential candidate has President Biden’s ability to bring responsible world leaders together.
–President Biden stands up for rights and freedoms that allow people we know and love to thrive without fear.

I guess Ms. King and I have entirely different views of Biden’s “leadership.” I don’t feel particularly stable or confident these days. Neither do I accept that Biden has done much to unite the country.
The email from Team Joe makes me cringe. “The Biden-Harris administration has made the largest investment in climate resilience in our nation’s history,” the report states.

“Climate resilience” is one of those contrived policies of word salads. Kamala Harris or one of her crew must have created that one.

Not surprisingly, she touts “the Native-led climate-resilient infrastructure projects…to ensure reliable access to water.” I think that’s a water pipeline.

For $32, I could buy a T-shirt to “unleash” my dark side and “fight malarkey.”

If Saturday Night Live were on the air, I’m convinced the T-shirts would make a good parody of what’s wrong with Joe and Kamala.

I hope I don’t have to make a contribution to support this dynamic duo to keep getting this “informative” inside stuff! I must admit that the emails made me smile because I’m probably not the only Republican that Joe’s Team is wasting money on trying to get me to contribute and vote for the Democrats.

Thank God for the Atom Bomb

Posted: July 25, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

By Christopher Harper

With the premiere of the motion picture Oppenheimer, the nuclear naysayers are starting to creep back into the public arena.

Writing in Time, Mary Robinson, the pacifist former president of Ireland, says: “As a young woman, I marched alongside hundreds of thousands of protesters against ‘the Bomb.’ Now a grandmother, I am appalled that my grandchildren still face the same specter of nuclear war.”

When I taught journalism, I had students read two sides of the nuclear debate. John Hersey’s Hiroshima, which many consider the finest piece of journalism in the 20th Century, chronicles the lives of six people who survived the bombing. Hersey’s descriptive prose underscored the horrors of the atomic age.

The other side of the debate—and one few people understand—comes from Paul Fussell’s view from the front lines of Allied soldiers launching an invasion of Japan.

As a lieutenant in a rifle company, Fussell was poised to go to Japan after the Axis had surrendered. He notes that hundreds of thousands of soldiers like him were heading toward Japan in an attack that would take a year and cost one million casualties. That’s one million Allied casualties—most of whom would be Americans.

Fussell writes: “In general, the principle is, the farther from the scene of horror, the easier the talk. One young combat naval officer close to the action wrote home…: ‘When I read that we will fight the Haps for years if necessary and will sacrifice hundreds of thousands if we must always like to check from where he’s talking; it’s seldom out here.’ That was Lieutenant John F. Kennedy.”

Fussell notes that the Japanese government planned to launch counteroffensives with its two million soldiers, 10,000 kamikaze aircraft, and even young people and seniors to defend the islands.

When news of the attack on Hiroshima reached his unit, Fussell and his fellow soldiers almost couldn’t believe the news. He quotes from American historian John Toland:

…[W]ith quiet disbelief coupled with an indescribable sense of relief. We thought the Japanese would never surrender. Many refused to believe it. . .. Sitting in stunned silence, we remembered our dead. So many dead. So many maimed. So many bright futures consigned to the ashes of the past. So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us. The survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war.

Fussell returned to the United States and became a well-known scholar of culture and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He died in 2012.

Despite his many noteworthy articles and books, “Thank God for the Atom Bomb” is the one most people remember.

Here is the entire article: https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iakh/HIS1300MET/v12/undervisningsmateriale/Fussel%20-%20thank%20god%20for%20the%20atom%20bomb.pdf

Older Entries
Newer Entries