Regarding the Jan. 4 editorial “Justice in Venezuela”:
The Editorial Board said, “This is a major victory for American interests.” Yes, there is much to be proud of from the success of the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, along with the intelligence and planning that successfully “extradited” Nicolás Maduro and others to the United States. Not one American was killed in the effort although, unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the dozens of Cuban soldiers and security agents who died in the attack.
Though no Americans were killed and a dictator was removed from the leadership of the country, international laws were ignored in the process. We ought to define success by first being assured that everything was done legally. One may be prone to agree with the Editorial Board’s stance that in this case the end justified the means, but, at least as regards our incursion against a sovereign nation, the end is too far from sight to so declare such a justification.
Craig M. Miller, Leland, North Carolina
The picture is slowly becoming a bit clearer on what the transition plan for Venezuela looks like, and the Trump administration appears to be learning from the United States’ past mistakes.
Most of the knee-jerk criticism in recent days has assumed that the Venezuela situation will be a repeat of past efforts at regime change. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Take Panama for example. There, we removed Manuel Antonio Noriega and left the National Guard in the barracks. They then transitioned to a national police force. We embedded U.S. Special Forces personnel in the system to ensure the new government had a chance to get established, but we pulled most of our combat troops out of the country to allow the Panamanians to choose their own government and way forward.
Now, with Venezuela, we may not have U.S. troops on the ground, but we have an abundance of them in close proximity to come in if we wish to do so.
And we have a network of Venezuelans in their existing government who have expressed a willingness to cooperate in developing a democratic government instead of a repressive dictatorship.
Our path forward will require careful balance, application of force when and if needed, restraint when possible, and making sure the people of Venezuela see what we are doing as an opportunity for them instead of a new oppression.
Hats off to this administration for having the guts to try and the intelligence to understand what is needed to succeed.
Christopher Brewer, Buford, Georgia
The writer is a retired major in the Army Special Forces.
An excise tax for cannabis
Drug policy experts Keith Humphreys and Beau Kilmer, in their Dec. 31 op-ed, “States, get marijuana off the road,” correctly noted that higher prices deter drug use and drugged driving. However, they overlooked excise taxation, the standard tool for price control, and instead seized upon minimum unit pricing.
Minimum unit pricing, pioneered in Scotlandand Wales, was born out of necessity because those jurisdictions lacked the authority to impose their own alcohol taxes. We do not have that limitation here.
Minimum unit pricing is designed to combat “loss leaders,” products sold at a loss to lure customers. This rarely applies to U.S. cannabis retailers, which are tightly regulated and usually sell little other than cannabis.
More importantly, by artificially boosting profit margins, minimum unit pricing incentivizes retailers to aggressively promote and “push” sales to maximize gains. This is counterproductive to public health. Though minimum unit pricing puts extra cash into the pockets of the industry, excise taxes capture that value for the public — and might even fund road safety and education programs to keep drugged drivers off the street.
If the goal is to reduce consumption, we should be enriching the public treasury, not the industry’s bottom line.
Patrick Oglesby, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The writer is CEO of the Center for New Revenue, a tax policy nonprofit.
Save wolves for us
For generations, wolves have occupied a narrow and unforgiving place in the American imagination, cast as villains, threats or competitors to be controlled or eliminated. The Dec. 28 news article “The big, bad wolf may actually be a lifesaver” asked us to pause and look again. Wolves’ presence pushes deer away from roads. The result is fewer wildlife collisions and safer travel for drivers.
But despite decades of recovery under the Endangered Species Act, gray wolf populations are still vulnerable. A bill from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) to end federal gray wolf protections is also making its way through Congress and passed the House last month. If enacted, it would open the door to unsustainable hunting and trapping and have devastating effects on wolf populations.
Wolves once roamed every Lower 48 state. Today, they occupy only a small fraction of that range.
The news article, which linked ecology, economics and public safety reinforced a truth conservationists have long known: When our natural world functions well, people benefit.
Susan Holmes, Washington
The writer is executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition.
Quintessential Christmas
I was surprised that the Dec. 25 Style article “23 Christmas traditions, ranked” omitted fruitcake. When I grew up in the 1950s, fruitcake was the currency of Christmas. Then, and for decades afterward, businesses were proud to send fruitcakes to their treasured patrons. Friends and neighbors exchanged them, too. I don’t know where fruitcakes rank as a Christmas tradition, but they were always a welcome gift.
Of course, fruitcakes are tasty on their own, but they’re superb when a bit of rum is thrown in.
Jim Sites, Bethesda
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