ustxtxb_obs_1998_10_09_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

A Li st i n 4a. .r 17, 19 9 save taxpayer money and to protect the constitutional rights of citizens and the welfare of the environment, would be to discontinue JTF-6 Support Services Shut it Down.” Among the community objections are: The use of JTF-6 military personnel in construction projects, in violation of the American spirit of fair play and fair enterprise and in unfair competition with local workers and contractors. The financial burden faced by local governments required to maintain roads built by the military. The practice of exposing military personnel to confrontations that can lead to the death of additional American citizens, while placing soldiers in jeopardy of being “indicted, tried, convicted, then sentenced to death in state courts for crimes committed while on duty.” The unfair and undue tax burden that will be imposed upon citizens to cover financial settlements paid out to people harmed or killed by JT1 4-6. The lack of a proper command structure, as suggested in the Coyne Report, which pointed out systemic failures at all levels of command, inadequate coordination among all agencies involved in the incident that cost Esequiel Hernandez his life, and the “obfuscation of responsibilities of everyone from top to bottom.” The Marines’ failure to wear clothing that identifies them as members of the U.S. armed forces, and the use of covert operations and camouflage, which made the Marines completely invisible to the residents of the community of Redford, where they were deployed. The substandard medical care provided Esequiel Hernandez Jr. after he was shot by a U.S. Marine. Publicly describing “the tiny community of Redford as a Drug Smuggling Capital of the Southwest,” informing Marines that Redford “was a hostile community, sheltering drugs smugglers,” and distributing profiles that depict goatherders, cowboys on horseback with saddlebags, and backpackers as “armed scouts and drug traffickers” thus endangering the lives of all the citizens living in the area. JTF-6′ s responsibility for the first killing in the entire history of the United States Marine Corps of an American citizen by an American Marine on American soil in the course of duty. Violations of firearms statutes, firing weapons across public roads and toward inhabited dwellings and in close proximity to a state highway and the general violation of private property rights and the sovereignty of the state of Texas. “Therefore,” the citizens’ report concludes, “it is urgent to the protection of our democratic form of government that JTF-6 be terminated immediately.” Jack McNamara lives in Alpine, where he edits and publishes the Nimby News, online at www.overland.netinimby/ This article is excerpted and edited, with permission, from the September 19 issue. Dialogue, from page 3 were when I wrote them down [in early August]: The current issue of Time voted to a Special Report. Is it about the Yangtze River floods in China, where already over 2,000 people have drowned? No, it is not. About Iraq’s renewed refusal to cooperate with the weapons inspectors? No. About the saber rattling of the world’s nuclear club’s newest members, India and Pakistan, and how this extremely dangerous situation might be defused? No, it is not. About the thousands of little children who are dying of hunger in the Sudan \(and not only No, it is not…. Could it be a special report concerned with some real problems in our own country, such as the inequity in educational and medical facilities, or the fact that thousands of hard-working American citizens live in homes without basic sanitary installations? Or about the half-million children who are presently living in foster care? No, it is not…. Time, the leading news magazine of the United States, instead of taking the lead in relegating details of our President’s private life onto a back page, has devoted twenty-seven pages \(in the Lewinsky affair. Why does that pathetic girl, deserve to be on the cover of your magazine, once considered an honored place reserved for truly outstanding persons? Did it have to be this same picture which every American has seen a thousand times, ad nauseam?… I wish you magazine publishers and newscasters would realize that most of your readers and viewers are sick to death of the whole thing. They are glad to have a capable, caring President, who successfully brokers peace in the world while at the same time keeping our economy on an even keel. What he does in his private life should be his and his family’s business. Margret Hoffman Austin THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7 OCTOBER 9, 1998 A 1