Tucson Speaks Out: December 18

We do not shoot military prisoners

The American military does not shoot prisoners. I come from a military family — two Wilkerson Marine Corps generals, my dad, Navy, his brother, my cousins and me.

In Vietnam, our Navy corpsmen and Army medics attended to our injuries first, then treated enemy combatants after the shooting stopped. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the international Geneva Conventions, killing a prisoner of war or a noncombatant is a serious war crime, potentially punishable as murder.

Service members are extensively trained from basic training onward to follow the laws of Armed Conflict, which explicitly prohibit the killing, torture, or ill-treatment of noncombatants. It is a war crime if a service member executes a prisoner without a trial or lawful process.

Yes, the drug boats should be destroyed. But looking down on a combatant whose boat has been destroyed by rockets and is floating hopelessly on the water, then shooting them again, is not the “fog of war!”

Jerry Wilkerson

SaddleBrooke

Latest attack on Medicare

"Prior Authorization" (PA) is a way privately-owned for-profit Medicare Advantage plans increase profits by requiring prior approval for medical services, and using AI to routinely deny that approval.

On Jan. 1, the pilot program "WISeR" will force PA onto Traditional Medicare in AZ and five other states, even though the main reasons seniors choose Trad Medicare are because it has no PA, or limited physician networks, or coverage caps.

Now there are 2 bills to stop WISeR: In the Senate: co-sponsored by Sen. Murray and Sen. Wyden. In the House: HR 5940 by Rep. Suzan DelBene and 31 others.

Patient advocacy groups, physicians, and hospitals cite conflict of interest for AI to review the need for medical procedures, since AI companies profit from denying approval.

“This is outrageous and should be a national scandal,” Murray said. “Make no mistake: This is a backdoor effort to privatize Medicare and cut benefits.”

Call Congress to stop it now.

Lee Stanfield

East side

Nuremberg film's flaw

As an attorney and a graduate of a Catholic university (Georgetown), I took special interest in "Nuremberg" (reviewed by Bruce Miller, Arizona Daily Star, Nov. 13). The film has merit but features an apparent fabrication — a confrontation between Justice Robert Jackson and Pope Pius XII, pressuring the latter into endorsing the Nuremberg trials. This scene is not supported by the historical record and is misleading. Although Pius did have concerns that the trials should not impose collective guilt on all Germans, he had, as early as 1944, expressed support for trying war criminals. Experts on the trials, such as John Barrett and Richard Crane, have, in recent interviews, commented on the inaccuracy of the portrayal of Pius XII. If a movie included an invented scene about any other religious group, many in the media would rightly denounce it. So it should be here. "Nuremberg" shines by raising awareness of a crucial period in history, but moviegoers should be aware of this particular flaw.

David Russo

Downtown

President's dehumanizing of others

As a parent, grandparent, and retired educator and coach, I have always believed that one of an adult's primary responsibilities is to teach and model for young people how to treat others with dignity and respect. If we can put aside all politics for a moment and our personal beliefs about immigration, the economy, health care, etc., how do we rationalize the way our president dehumanizes and degrades anyone that he does not like or disagrees with him? How do we explain that vitriol to our young people about the person who is supposed to represent all Americans? Is it okay to humiliate people that we don't like or see things differently than we do? I am truly curious how other parents and grandparents explain our president's behavior to their children.

Michael Urbanski

Northwest side

This deranged President

Our president is abominable in more ways than I can count. The latest abomination is his shameful response (if only he felt shame!) to the Reiner family tragedy. Daily, he repeatedly brings dishonor to this country. If anyone is deranged, it is the man himself.

There is no bottom to DJT's destructive, disgraceful, and delusional statements and behavior. And it is beyond terrifying that he has his hands on the nuclear codes. It would be wise for the American media not to continue to turn a blind eye to the extreme danger this seriously mentally ill man poses the world.

Robert Kafes

Midtown

Hater-in-Chief

It is hard to believe. It took until now for the "Hater-in-Chief" and the "Bigot-in-Chief" (HIC-BIC) to show his true colors. Tragically, it took the Reiners' deaths for him to come out. We knew about Somalis. And Afghanis. And Blacks. And Democrats. And most others not born in South Africa or Scandinavia. But the scurrilous rant is beyond. Apparently, only an Orban, Kirk or Putin is acceptable. Reassessment and reconsideration by his loyalists is overdue.

Kenneth Haber

Northwest side

Perhaps a grown man shall lead us

The adage says that "a small child shall lead us". Supposing the adage is in correct and it is a grown man who shall lead us. Thanks to Ahmed al Ahmed, the Australian gunmen were taken down. Al Ahmed used his humanity to take down the gunman killing Jews celebrating Hanukkah. Perhaps it is a small sign that Jews and Muslims can come together in decency and humanity and recognize that they are not the enemy. Their mutual enemy are those who manipulate their anger and cause their mutual deaths. One can only hope that one day ...

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

Blue Christmas

The Pima County Board of Supervisors is set to approve the sale of 290 acres to a Blue Owl Capital Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) on or before Christmas Day. Blue Owl Capital has had a rough 2025 and has been named in recent financial publications highlighting the opacity of its tangled financial structure and the off-balance-sheet financing of data centers. If we truly are seeing the emergence of an AI bubble, will the canary in the AI coal mine be a Blue Owl?

Sheldon Clark

Vail

Winterhaven

I love Winterhaven! It is a beloved Tucson tradition! How is it that the Arizona Daily Star does not know this?? Somehow our beloved local tradition has been sidelined or QR'd in favor of "Gunman at Brown University" and "gun laws in Australia," etc., etc. So instead of being able to read a story about our beloved tradition, we are invited to QR code it and read it on our phones. Not acceptable for lots of reasons, including I don't know how to QR things. I suggest The Star relegate "guns" to the QR world and let me read an article in print about my beloved Winterhaven!

Diane Daniels

Northeast side

Thoughts to ponder

While writer Clay Berger is giving us "thoughts to ponder" concerning the drug boat strikes, I'd appreciate having him ponder the question of why Donald Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of conspiring to traffic 400 tons of cocaine — the equivalent of 400,000 kilos — to (in Hernandez's words) "stuff up the noses of the gringos." I've lost track of how many boats the Pentagon has blown up, but I believe approximately 1,000 kilos of cocaine were found floating in the water after one of these recent attacks. Let's see ... doing the math, at that approximate recovery rate, it would take blasting 400 boats out of the water to simply match the cocaine trafficking perpetrated by Trump's pardonee. Does this make sense to you? It sure doesn't to me.

Hope Gastelum

East side

Framed for murder

Having recently read John Grisham's book "Framed" about innocent people wrongfully convicted, and even executed, for murder, the front-page article about Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels' falsification of evidence sounds only too familiar.

These cases generally have these components: 1) lacking evidence, officers identify a convenient suspect; 2) their interrogations last for many hours and include intimidation, threats, false statements by interrogators and false promises; 3) victims often make false confessions to escape the nightmare; 4) witness testimony is solicited from fellow prisoners claiming jailhouse confessions to get lenient sentences or dropped charges; 5) exculpatory evidence is ignored and false evidence is presented; 6) evidence is withheld from defense attorneys.

The National Registry of Exonerations documents 3,763 exonerations of death row inmates. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimates 4% of people sentenced to death are innocent. This is an embarrassing national tragedy.

Bruce Hilpert

North side

Masks and restaurant raids

Reports of raids on Tucson’s Taco Giro restaurants got me thinking about wearing masks in post-COVID America.

In my visits to Japan beginning decades ago, I was surprised to see citizens walking the streets wearing face covers and informed that they were masked to protect others from their cold or flu, and quite surprised by this level of civility.

Fly east across the Pacific Ocean and landing in 2025 America, we find all acronyms of policing forces hiding their faces. They don’t have the flu but fear doxxing, meaning that facial exposure can be traced to their families, and their socially vulnerable children will receive text messages saying their parents are Nazis. No prom dates.

College students show up to protest with faces hidden by Palestinian keffiyehs and then retreat to their dorm rooms to protect themselves from any response to their free speech. They get dates.

It’s time to start learning Japanese.

Jeffrey McConnell

West side

There you go again

Yet another central Arizona Republican is pushing to have repackaged theology taught in science classrooms. Again.

And we wonder why American students are falling behind in things like science and math.

David Reynolds

East side