Letters to the Editor | April 9, 2026
Inquirer readers on the Iran War and the SAVE America Act.

Human hubris
By saying “God wants to see people taken care of,” Donald Trump is attempting to frame the current bombing campaign as doing God’s will.
Christians, Muslims, and Jews all believe in one God. There are currently eight billion people on the planet. If an all-powerful, all-knowing deity wanted to destroy something or someone, why would God need something as small and insignificant as a human being to carry out the task?
Over time, more people have been killed in the name of religion than probably any other cause. War is fought for political reasons; invoking the will of God to justify it is nothing more than human hubris.
Tim Moran, Wayne
Politicizing oil
Oil has been the underpinning of industrial economies throughout the world for the last century, and is a natural material produced under pressure and temperature deep within the Earth. Some estimates suggest that the time taken to form oil can be counted in millions of years.
Ancient pockets of oil are scattered across the Earth without respect to modern political boundaries. Access to oil to support the needs of life is considered existential for countries without a natural supply, and some are willing to fight for it. Others see the control of this limited resource as wealth and power, and for those reasons are also willing to fight for it. This tension has spawned wars in the past and provides a backdrop for our present war that has sent shock waves through every economy.
Oil, literally, is of the past. Conditions that gave rise to its formation no longer exist; thus, we have anchored our civilization to a defunct process. It is time to look to the future. Alternative sources of energy are available that do not require wars to acquire or defend. Sunlight shines on every rooftop and open field.
Our reliance and sometimes violent struggles for oil have taken us to this future. If we seek a different future, we must stop looking over our shoulders to the past. Change can be challenging, but evolution to ensure a different future has always been a requirement to survive and thrive.
Kevin Deeny, Levittown
Much ado about nothing
To those opposed to the SAVE America Act, I have a question: Did the REAL ID Act stop elderly, low-income, or rural Americans from boarding airplanes? Of course not. So why would the SAVE America Act’s one-time proof of citizenship requirement somehow prevent those same citizens from voting, as The Inquirer Editorial Board warned?
The documents that prove citizenship are the same for both acts: certified birth certificate, passport, or naturalization or citizenship certificate. The existing REAL ID systems have already addressed the resolution of document mismatches such as marriage name changes.
Beyond the isolated example Sen. Dave McCormick highlighted in a recent letter, the full scope of noncitizen voting is, by definition, unknowable. Why? Because 23 states automatically register people to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license or state ID, unless they opt out. These states rely on the applicant’s honesty, not documentary proof of citizenship.
The scale of existing compliance also undercuts the alarmism. Roughly 170 million Americans already hold a REAL ID, exceeding the 154 million who voted in the 2024 presidential election.
If Americans accepted one-time documentary proof to obtain a REAL ID to make flying safe, it’s hard to argue that one-time documentary proof to protect the integrity of elections is inherently oppressive.
Brian Suckow, Palo Alto, Calif.
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