Operation Epic Fury
As our nation watches Operation Epic Fury unfold – a sweeping U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran that has already cost American and Iranian lives and intensified tensions across the Middle East – I am alarmed by the decision to embark on such a course.
Nearly a decade ago, Donald Trump warned of the perils of putting military force ahead of diplomacy, saying: “We have a president that doesn’t know the first thing about negotiation. We have a real problem in the White House … I believe he will attack Iran sometime prior to the election because he thinks that’s the only way he can get elected. Isn’t it pathetic?” (November 2012).
These words, spoken about another administration’s foreign-policy judgment, now ring eerily prescient. Today, the same pattern has repeated under a leadership that once vowed “no new wars” but presides over a major military operation with vague objectives, uncertain exit strategies and rising casualties.
Operation Epic Fury was launched with assertions of imminent threats, yet diplomatic channels remained underutilized even as negotiations showed signs of progress. The devastation – both human and geopolitical – should prompt all Americans to ask a simple question: have we exhausted every peaceful avenue before resorting to force?
War should never be a tool for electoral politics or a substitute for skilled negotiation. Our leaders owe the public clarity about goals, costs, and alternatives. We must insist on accountability, transparency and a foreign policy that prioritizes peace over war.
Charles Larsen, Marble
State must fund schools
There is nothing as unfulfilling as a promise, especially one made to our children and repeatedly broken by the state sworn to protect their rights.
Leandro vs. State of North Carolina is a lawsuit initiated by five rural N.C. school districts in 1994. In rulings issued in 1997 and 2004, the state Supreme Court determined that North Carolina was not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide every child with a sound basic education.
In response, a detailed, multi-year plan was created to bring the state into compliance by 2028. Though the N.C. General Assembly has known it has a constitutional obligation to meet the plan’s funding requirements, they have not come through for us.
In classrooms in Cherokee and Clay counties, educators pour their time and heart into their work, guiding students, many of whom go on to excel in career and technical programs and ultimately give back to our community. Their successes are a testament to dedication and resilience – but dedication alone cannot substitute for adequate funding, staffing and resources. Our teachers should not have to stretch every dollar or cover multiple roles. Our students’ accomplishments deserve to be matched by the full support the Constitution promises them.
The courts have been clear. The Leandro rulings were not suggestions or optional goals – they were legal mandates. Yet the state has repeatedly failed to fully implement the Leandro Plan, leaving students – especially in rural counties like ours – to bear the cost.
Call or write to state Rep. Karl Gillespie and state Sen. Kevin Corbin. Tell them to stand up for our children.
Kelly Denton, Hayesville
AI will bring in more jobs
The expansion of the AI industrial plant off of Airport Road is just what the Murphy area needs to incite young adults to stay and work locally when they finish with school.
It is foolish and selfish for local residents to be worried about petty annoyances in comparison to job opportunities expansion will surely bring. I moved to Atlanta to go to work. I sure wish AI had been there back then.
Tim Johnson, Ellenboro
‘Coincidental’ assassinations
I believe Israel’s MOSSAD assassinated JFK and Robert Kennedy. Since then, America has been controlled by Zionists.
The Federal Reserve Bank controls America’s economy. It’s neither part of the federal government nor does it have trillions in reserves. Its name is purposely deceptive. It’s a privately owned Zio-international banking cartel. The Fed floats bonds and orders the printing of Federal Reserve notes to the Treasury. A note is an IOU; it has no intrinsic value, it’s currency, not money.
JFK knew that the Fed’s policy of massive quantitative easing was contributing to inflation and constant boom-bust cycles. In June 1963, JFK’s Executive Order 11110 authorized the U.S. Treasury to issue silver certificates. This would directly challenge the Fed’s control over the currency supply, transferring its power to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It would have replaced Fed notes with silver certificates, which could be redeemed in silver, real money. Within months, Kennedy was dead.
JFK was adamantly opposed to Israel having nukes. He wrote a strongly worded letter to Israel’s prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, insisting that the U.S. inspect their Dimona nuclear power plant to ensure that it wasn’t being used to develop a nuclear weapon. This infuriated Ben-Gurion.
In July 1963, JFK wrote to the new prime minister, Levi Eshkol. Within four months, Kennedy was assassinated. A former Israeli nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu, bravely exposed Israel’s nuclear program. Israel imprisoned Vanunu for 18 years, mostly in solitary confinement. Israel has 300-plus nukes.
In 1962, JFK and Robert Kennedy directed AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to register as a foreign agent. AIPAC fiercely opposed the Kennedys. Both were later assassinated. Coincidence?
Strip joint owner Jacob Leon Rubenstein, aka Jack Ruby, armed with a .38, murdered Oswald. The Warren Commission concluded that Rubenstein “acted on impulse.”
Mary Mason, Murphy