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Letters: Islamic State, Trump, and extremism

ISSUE | ISLAMIC STATE Boots in closet The likes of "Jihadi John" and the San Bernardino killers are criminals, not soldiers. They should be hunted, captured, and killed wherever they are.

ISSUE | ISLAMIC STATE

Boots in closet

The likes of "Jihadi John" and the San Bernardino killers are criminals, not soldiers. They should be hunted, captured, and killed wherever they are.

The undocumented casualties of Sept. 11, 2001, include our perspective. In the 14 years since, jihadist terrorism has accounted for 45 deaths on U.S. soil. An average of more than 400 Americans die from falling out of bed in a single year.

I get V-E Day, V-J Day, Appomattox: We win; you lose. ISIS is different. Before we put boots on the ground, I would like just one GOP presidential hopeful to explain what V-I Day would look like. Until then, let's keep our boots in the closet.

|Kenneth M. Foti, Malvern

Strategy in stocking

Wednesday's editorial ("Muslims not the enemy") was right on until it said, "President Obama's speech Sunday was rightly panned for not including an effective strategy to defeat ISIS." Did you really expect that after months of grappling with this nightmare, the president was going to play Santa Claus and pull a new strategy out of his bag?

There is no simple solution to ISIS. Why are we so incapable of understanding this? Is that why we continue to entertain ideas like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's vow to bomb ISIS until the sand glows?

|Linda Gunn, Elkins Park

Bold choice of words

I keep Currents until I have a chance to read it, and having just returned from a cruise, I recently read the Nov. 29 section. The first headline I encountered was "In face of Islamic State, Obama offers cowardice." Author Paul McHale offered a fairly balanced opinion, using the word cowardice only once. I take strong objection to labeling our president with that word. Do the people who write the headlines even read the articles?

|Janet McGill, North Wales

ISSUE | DONALD TRUMP

Americans, heal yourselves

Everyone seems to be blaming Donald Trump for his radical, incendiary rhetoric ("Trump backlash on Muslim ban," Wednesday), but the real issue is the 30 percent or so of Republicans who are supporting him. He wouldn't exist as a candidate without them.

Instead of criticizing Trump, shouldn't the other Republican candidates be critical of that portion of their own party? Rather than just attacking the spokesman, shouldn't we all be more concerned about the views of that portion of our country?

|Greg McCoy, Chadds Ford

Immigration has limits

There has always been some immigration to the United States, but it has varied greatly based on the country's needs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an immigration boom paralleled rapid industrial growth. Afterward, immigration was restricted for about 40 years. In 1965, Congress instituted a system that wasn't as favorable to Europeans, which brought another immigration boom.

There have always been pauses to allow immigrants to assimilate, but with the ever-accelerating rate of new immigrants, the country is becoming balkanized. Although Donald Trump could have been more artful in his statements, a pause in immigration from countries spawning terrorism should be seriously debated without ad hominem attacks driven by political correctness.

|Fran Steffler, Philadelphia, fsteffler@aol.com

Past isn't even past

Many have forgotten what fascism is and how it works its way ever so slowly into power when conditions are just right for it to flourish. Today, only 90-year-olds have personal memories of fascism in power. The United States was willing to fight to the death against it in what is often called the last good war.

Instead of providing Trump with endless free television commercials disguised as reporting, how about adding a tutorial on fascism to the news cycle? We need to see it over and over, too.

|Margaret Rohdy, Philadelphia