According to The Sun's editorial, the port's capacity to double-stack freight containers on rail cars is limited because of aging tunnel infrastructure. But there is hope.
There is legislation before Congress, the Freight Railroad Infrastructure Capacity Expansion Act, that could help spur infrastructure expansion by providing tax credits for projects that increase capacity.
Perhaps this bill could help us meet some of the port's challenges.
Rochelle "Rikki" Spector, Baltimore
The writer is a member of the City Council.
'Surge' didn't work, war won't be won
Three items attracted my attention in Tuesday's Sun.
First, I read the list of 22 members of the U.S. armed forces recently killed in Iraq ("Killed in Iraq," Aug. 19). The total U.S. military dead in the Iraq war is now at least 4,143.
Then I read The Sun's article "Iraqi officials disarm Sunnis" (Aug. 19), which reports that the government of Iraq does not trust forces such as the Awakening Councils, which are being paid by the U.S. military to fight al-Qaida in Iraq.
Finally, I read Larry Smith's column "When should we leave Iraq? Not just yet" (Commentary, Aug. 19), which claims, "Fortunately for all of us, the 'surge' in Iraq worked."
That is a ridiculous and bombastic statement. The surge did not work for those dead service members listed in The Sun. It did not work for all of the Iraqi civilians living under the boot-heel of occupation.
The invasion of Iraq was based on a multitude of lies and was illegal. The occupation is no less illegal.
The war will never be won.
War is terror.
Let's end this foreign policy disaster as quickly as possible, and get the troops out so that the people of the Middle East, with the assistance of the United Nations, can work toward building some semblance of a functional Iraqi state.
Max Obuszewski, Baltimore
Iraqi councils curbed carnage
Larry Smith opens his column "When should we leave Iraq? Not just yet" (Commentary, Aug. 19) by stating, "Fortunately for all of us, the 'surge' in Iraq worked." He doesn't feel the slightest need to prove his case - and who can blame him, given that most Americans have apparently accepted this claim as fact?
But the truth is that we don't know how well the "surge" worked.
While violence in Iraq has decreased, many experts point instead to the work of the Awakening Councils, the united groups of Sunni villagers who rose up against al-Qaida beginning in early 2007, as an explanation for the reduction in violence.
