The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board spends $10 million annually on our forestry efforts. The June 4 commentary requesting that trees be worked around or transplanted ('Trees - living sculptures - have earned their place') reflects how much Minneapolis residents and visitors value trees. The removal of trees at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is unfortunate, but necessary. Removal of trees is necessary, but affection for them is understood In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.' … I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.

It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. It is the only one international in scope. … It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. Smedley Butler, a Medal of Honor winner who nailed it way back in 1935: 'War is a racket. Among his several illustrative quotes, Lewis should have included Marine Gen. He hilariously lumps Ronald Reagan, aka 'The Hero of Grenada,' into the peacenik camp, reminding us that Reagan brought the Marines home from Lebanon without bothering to mention that one day in October 1983, 241 of them came home in body bags. Lewis' pathetic attempt to paint Republicans as traditional peace-lovers misses the fact that every American president since Teddy Roosevelt has seen fit to exercise our massive military power abroad. So while Eisenhower avoided the big war, his appetite for interventionism was great and the consequences of his actions tragic. Eisenhower's missteps also included pivotal roles in taking down democratic regimes in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954) that led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and to genocide in Guatemala. It was an impossible task and one that Eisenhower deserves credit for creating. goal was a South Vietnam that could survive without U.S. From 1954 until the withdrawal in 1973, the U.S. Instead of accepting the French defeat in Indochina, Eisenhower put American credibility on the line in defending the creation of South Vietnam. Though Eisenhower avoided putting troops on the ground, he set the stage for the debacle that dragged Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon into war. Where Lewis went wrong was to put President Dwight Eisenhower in a positive light in terms of Vietnam. The warmongering that characterizes both parties has done the nation little good and is leading us away from democracy and toward fiscal ruin. Jason Lewis is right to call attention to the moderate strain in foreign policy that was once present among both Democrats and Republicans ('Rand Paul is the real Republican,' June 4).

Smedley butler quotes i spent 33 years