Walking away guarantees Boehner’s legacy one way or another Re: “Debt talks crisis: Boehner, Obama trading blame,” July 22
News that House Speaker John Boehner walked away from the historic debt ceiling talks late Friday is breathtaking.
I served on Capitol Hill in 1972 and have followed the workings of Congress and the White House since then. I believe Mr. Boehner’s departure from the negotiating table can only end one of two ways.
Either he will become known as the smartest politician in modern times or the provocateur of the biggest economic calamity of our lifetime.
Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach, Calif.
Merchant vessels should be allowed self defense
Re: “World sea attacks rise as pirates become bolder,” July 14
For as long as man has mastered the waves, piracy has been the thorn in the side of every merchant. The United States even used to practice it, though under a different banner called “privateering.”
For the last decade, piracy has been a growing problem in not just Somalia but also West Africa, the southern Caribbean and Indonesia. Billions in ransom has been paid out and despite NATO operating an anti-piracy flotilla, little has improved.
International law forbids merchant vessels from carrying arms, yet having a small arms locker on merchant vessels would be the best form of deterrent. Fielding a handful of close-quarter weapons would keep many of the vessels from being attacked and be far more effective than NATO wasting millions of our dollars anchored out in the Gulf of Aden.
Daniel Atchison
Birmingham, Ala.
GOP is playing a dangerous game
Re: “Obama’s debt offer risky but could be win-win,” July 22
In this real-life “adult” version of “pin the tail on the donkey” that congressional Republicans are playing with our economic lives, they seem clueless as to the presence of a gigantic red elephant in the room.
But their childish inflexibility and orchestration of a presidential “temper tantrum” may boomerang and put their own political futures on the line.
Karen Ann DeLuca
Alexandria
