a26 EZ RE the washington post.tuesday, november 12 , 2019
letters to the editor[email protected]local opinionsJoin the debate at washingtonpost.com/local-opinions“Look forward to” i s likely not the sentiment of
local and U.S. authorities who recall the brutish
behavior of Turkish security personnel during
Mr. Erdogan’s last visit i n 2017. Video of a confronta-
tion outside the ambassador’s residence at Sheridan
Circle showed bodyguards overrunning police and
ignoring their commands as they beat peaceful
protesters; newly revealed State Department mem-
os show other problems with Turkish security
during the two-day visit. Indictments were brought
against 15 Turkish guards, but most were later
dropped.
It was not the first time Mr. Erdogan came to the
United States and ended up bullying dissenters. His
appearance at the Brookings Institution during the
2016 Nuclear Security Summit saw his security
detail roughing up demonstrators and trying to eject
“undesired” journalists. Mr. Erdogan sadly is able to
get away with stifling dissent and cracking down onT
URKISH OFFICIALS at one point suggested
that President Recep Ta yyip Erdogan might
call off this week’s planned visit to Washing-
ton to protest recent congressional votes
against the country. Given the violence committed
by his security detail on previous visits and the
ongoing repression by his regime, many people — on
both sides of the political aisle — would have cheered
a cancellation. But Mr. Erdogan is coming after all,
and President Trump once again is laying out the
welcome mat for an unrepentant strongman who is
waging war both domestically and abroad.
“Just had a very good call with President @RTEr-
dogan.... Look forward to seeing President Erdogan
next Wednesday, November 13th at the @White-
House!” Mr. Trump tweeted following a phone call to
patch things up after a House resolution condemned
the massacre last century of 1.5 million Armenians
by the Ottoman Empire as an act of genocide.journalists at home. It should be made clear to him
that such tactics won’t be tolerated here. D.C. police
won’t comment on their preparations, but we hope
they are better positioned this time to protect
peaceful protesters.
And there is much to protest. Mr. Erdogan has
jailed hundreds of journalists, academics and others
he perceives as political opponents, and purged
thousands from their jobs. His offensive into north-
eastern Syria, under the guise of fighting terrorism
and greenlighted by Mr. Trump, has led to ethnic
cleansing of Kurds, created a humanitarian disaster
and compromised the fight against the Islamic State.
He has been emboldened by Mr. Trump’s eagerness
to retreat from the region, and there’s l ittle hope that
the administration will s peak up for the rule of law
in Turkey. It is up to Congress to protest — and
hopefully mitigate — the damage Mr. Erdogan is
causing.Too many violent visits
There is much to protest as Mr. Erdogan returns to the District.
B
OLIVIA WAS wracked by violence and in
danger of slipping into anarchy on Monday.
While both military leaders and civilian
agitators were culpable, there could be little
doubt who was ultimately responsible for the chaos:
newly resigned president Evo Morales.
Mr. Morales, who had grown increasingly auto-
cratic in nearly 14 y ears in office, insisted on running
for a fourth term even after he lost a national
referendum on whether he could seek it. The
electoral tribunal, which he controls, then moved to
falsify the results of the Oct. 20 vote so as to hand
him a first-round victory.
The result was predictable: Angry Bolivians took
to the streets all over the country. They had been
demonstrating for weeks when, on Sunday, an audit
released by the Organization of American States
reported massive irregularities in the vote count and
called for a fresh election.
That is the right solution. But the commanders of
the army and national police complicated the
situation Sunday by calling on Mr. Morales to step
down. It w as not a coup in the usual sense: No t roops
stormed government offices, and the army has so far
shown no interest in taking power.
But the military intervention led to a dangerous
power vacuum. Mr. Morales and senior legislative
leaders from his party all resigned, leaving no one in
control of the government. Mobs sympathetic to
both sides went on a rampage of looting and arson.
On Monday, Bolivia’s more responsible leaders,
including Carlos Mesa, the runner-up in the Oct. 20
vote, were attempting to preserve constitutional
order by convening the National Congress to accept
Mr. Morales’s resignation and designate a civilian
successor who would call elections within 30 days.
But it wasn’t c lear that Mr. Morales would cooperate.
Instead, holed up in the coca-growing region that is
his stronghold, he issued incendiary tweets de-nouncing the “coup,” even as deputies loyal to him
prevented the legislature from gaining the quorum
necessary to act. Mr. Mesa plausibly accused Mr. Mo-
rales of seeking to create chaos in the country,
thereby enabling a comeback.
Though he is a disciple of Hugo Chávez, Mr. Mo-
rales did not wreak the economic havoc that has
devastated Venezuela. On the contrary, he oversaw
steady growth and a reduction in poverty. As a
member of the Aymara indigenous people, he
offered new respect for Bolivia’s long-downtrodden
indigenous majority. His downfall was his insatiableappetite for power. He was unable to accept that a
majority of Bolivians wanted him to leave office.
Latin America’s polarization between left- and
right-wing regimes led to a predictable diplomatic
scramble Sunday, w ith leftist governments denounc-
ing the supposed coup and rightists welcoming
Mr. Morales’s downfall. In fact, all sides ought to be
supporting the OAS position, which calls for an end
to violence and “an urgent meeting” of the National
Congress to “ensure the institutional functioning
and to name new electoral authorities to guarantee a
new electoral process.”Bolivia’s
dangerous slide
toward anarchy
Mr. Morales stepped down
but continues to stoke chaos.ABCDE
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the Washington post
1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 (202) 334-6000In her Nov. 8 Metro column, “Juli Briskman is
reigning queen of the revenge run,” Petula Dvorak
sang the praises of individuals who “have in com-
mon an opposition to Trump or Trump’s policies.”
Regardless of one’s political leanings, it is extremely
disheartening to read “the revenge run is everything
in politics right now. And it’s pretty sweet.” Have
people forgotten how much thought, hardship and
effort went into the founding of our nation, the
writing of our Constitution, the previous 250 years of
steps and missteps and attempted corrections that
form our fragile way of life? Revenge is never a
motive to be applauded. It’s an easy-to-understand
reason for action, but one that never accomplishes
anything of lasting value. I’ll support a quiet
problem-solver any day over a candidate running on
revenge.
My p lea to future candidates is this: Run on ideas,
run on achievements, run on willingness to serve,
but do not run on revenge.
Nancy Ferrell, Fairfax StationRevenge is a dangerous motive
Concerning the bus strike in Northern Virginia,
the Nov. 8 Metro article “Metro budget faces scruti-
ny” reported that Transdev was contractually re-
quired to have a strike contingency plan to prevent
interruption of the bus lines it operates. However,
when the strike began, most of the lines went out of
service, with no sign of any contingency planning
whatsoever.
On what basis, then, did Metro General Manager
Paul J. Wiedefeld conclude that Transdev is not in
violation?
Another question arises from Mr. Wiedefeld’s
statement that “Metro has no plans to intervene in
the labor dispute.” If Metro is allowing Transdev to
forgo payment of nonperformance penalties, Metro
is already intervening in Transdev’s favor by reliev-
ing it of pressure to reach a settlement.
We need straight answers to cut through this fog
of contradictions.
Stephen Brinich, SpringfieldMetro has no Plan B
The Nov. 6 news article “U.S. should consider
pooling AI data with other countries, commission
says” addressed concerns over autonomous
a rtificial-intelligence-driven weapons and the
U.S. military’s involvement in their development.
These concerns are unwarranted. Modern artificial
intelligence, especially in the field of computer
vision, is a roulette wheel. The best models are pretty
accurate, but do the math: If a model is correct
99 percent of the time, then in a war, the thousands
of killer drones people are afraid of will shoot the
wrong person hundreds of times upon deployment.
On the off chance a major discovery enables the
implementation of a consistent, fatal drone of death,
the United States should be prepared to defend its
citizens, so research on AI drones should continue.
Until a major breakthrough happens, though, AI is a
double-edged sword to any nation that tries to use it
in war, so let’s allow the military to protect us and
focus on the applications of AI to medical and
technological industries.
Derek Dong, HerndonAI is a roulette wheel
Regarding the Nov. 8 front-page article “Seeing
weak field, Bloomberg moves to join 2020 campaign”:
I am an educated 71-year-old white woman, and
I am sick to death of white men my age — or older —
suffering from Only-I-Can-Fix-It Syndrome. You are
not a savior, and I will not vote for any of you —
former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.) or Michael Bloomberg, a former New York
mayor — in the primaries. If you want to elect a
centrist Democrat president, please throw your
substantial means of support behind Sen. Cory
Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.),
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg or Sen. Ka-
mala D. Harris (D-Calif.). They represent the future
of the party and the country.
Barbara Brennan, ArlingtonNot another old, white man in 2020
Regarding the Nov. 8 editorial “The search for a
scapegoat”:
Republicans are trying to expose the whistleblow-
er, so do Republicans now believe that every drug
dealer or killer w ho is identified by a caller t o a police
anonymous tip line has a right to “meet his accuser”?
My p arty u sed to be the p arty o f law and o rder. Now it
is the cult of Donald Trump.
Robert Leary, Queenstown, Md.Eugene Robinson’s Nov. 8 op-ed, “Call Trump’s
crime what it is: Bribery,” made a point that has been
bothering me. This sure looks like bribery, and
two-directional bribery at that.
President Trump appears to be the brib-ee (you
give me something o f value a nd I — a public official —
will release the aid) and the brib-er (I’ll give you
something o f value if you — a public official — give me
an investigation). And, as the brib-er, he’s using
taxpayer money to commit the bribe.
One other thing Mr. Robinson might have men-
tioned: The Constitution says a president can be
impeached f or “treason, bribery, or other high c rimes
and misdemeanors.” Why worry about what a “high
crime” i s? Bribery is a specific basis for i mpeachment.
John Wellschlager, AnnapolisThe headline of Eugene Robinson’s Nov. 8 op-ed,
“Call Trump’s crime what it is: Bribery,” should be
altered by changing the last word to the more
accurate “Extortion.” A s Michael Gerson s ummarized
in his Nov. 8 op-ed, “Public integrity? Blah, blah,
blah.,” President Trump withheld U.S. security assis-
tance i ntended to help s ustain Ukrainian sovereignty
at the very time Russia was threatening it by
occupying Ukrainian territory. He did this for his
own selfish political ends. Moreover, this criminal
conversion o f funds a lso undermined U.S. security by
strengthening Russia’s position in Ukraine and
throughout Eastern Europe.
Mr. Trump’s egregious actions can be answered
only by impeachment.
William E. Hellert, Silver SpringBribery calls for impeachment
I
N THE expansive realm of congressional dys-
function, there are few recent examples that
surpass the failure to shield from deportation
hundreds of thousands of unauthorized mi-
grants, now in their 20s and 30s, who have grown
up, studied and entered the job force after being
brought to the United States as children. Here is a
youthful cohort of more than 700,000 — as ambi-
tious and promising as their native-born neighbors,
classmates, co-workers and friends — whom large
majorities of Americans want to protect. And still
their fate remains hostage to Capitol Hill’s habitual
gridlock.
As the Supreme Court hears legal arguments
Tuesday on the Obama-era policy that provided a
reprieve from removal and gave job permits to
hundreds of thousands of young unauthorized
immigrants, and on the Trump administration’s
2017 attempt to rescind that policy, it’s worth
remembering some history. Specifically, that mem-
bers of Congress of both parties have been trying,and failing, to codify those very protections for
so-called dreamers since nearly the turn of the
century.
It was August 2001 when then-Sen. Orrin
G. Hatch, a Utah Republican, and Sen. Richard J.
Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, introduced the Dream
Act, outlining a pathway to legal permanent residen-
cy for migrants who entered the United States as
minors, usually with their parents. Since then,
repeated iterations of that measure have become
enmeshed in the broader partisan impasse over
immigration, even as lawmakers, including many
Republicans, voiced ritual sympathy for dreamers.
An attempt to break the logjam last year, with a
compromise pairing a long-term fix for the dreamers
with funding for border security, including Presi-
dent Trump’s wall, fizzled in the Senate when he
threatened a veto. Now that the president is building
portions of the wall anyway, by diverting funds
appropriated by Congress for the military, what
possible justification can lawmakers find to avoiddoing the moral and humane thing by guaranteeing
a normal life for dreamers?
Perversely, it is imaginable that Congress, and
perhaps even Mr. Trump, could be jarred into acting
on the dreamers’ behalf by a Supreme Court ruling
that removed their protections and job security.
Mass layoffs and waves of deportations, along with
the financial distress those would trigger, could
create the sort of crisis that focuses minds in
Washington when all else fails. And the fiscal and
economic impact of layoffs affecting hundreds of
thousands of employees, and others still in college,
would be consequential. A 2017 CATO Institute
study found that deporting 750,000 young people
protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program would sap the U.S. economy by
$280 billion over a decade, and the federal tax
coffers by an additional $60 billion.
But Congress could regain some respect by doing
the right, the obviously right, thing before the court
rules.Protect the ‘dreamers’
The Supreme Court weighs DACA’s future, but Congress has the power to secure young immigrants’ futures.
ABCDE
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
editorialstom toles Letters to the editor: [email protected]Regarding the Nov. 10 Washington Post Magazine
article “‘These are working cats’: Meet the feral
D.C. felines t asked with hunting rodents”:
It is dreadfully irresponsible to publish an article
about feral “working cats” without addressing the
havoc they wreak on wild birds. The article men-
tioned that the cats — hired out to homes and
businesses to eliminate rodents — prey on birds.
Lauren Lipsey of the Humane Rescue Alliance said,
“Ultimately, we do endeavor to decrease the number
of cats living o utside,” but more context is w arranted.
The article could have referenced the Sept. 18,
2014, Adrian Higgins Gardening column, “What ev-
ery suburbanite can do to save birds” [Local Living],
in which Pete Marra explained the research showing
that feral cats in the United States kill billions o f birdsevery year (at a rate of about 23 to 46 birds per feral
cat). But why not get more up-to-date information
from Mr. Marra, now a professor at Georgetown
University and director of the Georgetown Environ-
ment Initiative not too far from The Post’s offices?
I understand t he need t o decrease our rodent popula-
tion in the District, but doing so without considering
the threat to local birds is bad wildlife management;
writing about only one side of the issue is bad
journalism.
Michele Claeys, WashingtonCats are indiscriminate killers
Not considering the threat to localbirds is bad wildlife management.