What Makes An American Ally?

I could not agree more with your editorial that seeks to define America’s friends by the metric of freedom and democracy [“Clinton in Taiwan,” Editorial, February 28, 2005]. With harsh and repressive laws that restrict movement of its people, curtail free speech, limit educational access, and an appallingly opaque economic landscape, China truly merits the sobriquet of “strategic competitor” given by candidate Bush in 2000. Rather unfortunately, President Bush appears to have retreated from that stance in the four years since.

Similarly and dismayingly, the administration has accorded a putative friend, Pakistan, the special status of non-NATO ally. Despite a steady and unremitting drip of chicanery and deceit in a variety of areas that include nuclear proliferation, abrogation of commitments to restore democracy, and electoral rules that thwart opposition candidates from running, to outright rigging of “elections,” the Bush administration seems intent on forging ahead with a pact that, historically, has had only a very bad outcome. Mollycoddling a dictatorial regime, presumably to achieve the strategic goal of capturing the mastermind of September 11 and other prime terrorists, is no way to advance the cause of democracy in a region that has the world’s largest democracy.

VIJAY DANDAPANI
Manhattan

Wal-Mart Halts Plans for City

Another day, another major corporation scared away by the incompetence and scare tactics of local politicians and labor leaders [“Wal-Mart Halts Its Plan To Enter New York City,” Daniela Gerson, Page 1, February 24, 2005]. To hear representatives like Helen Sears claim that the abandoned attempt of companies like BJ’s and Wal-Mart to open stores in New York City is a victory hurts my ears. I work in finance and have a degree in international business, so naturally I’m interested in learning just how the loss of hundreds of jobs that would have been created by the establishment of these stores and the lower prices that would follow for the neighborhood is a victory.

Do citizens in the Bronx and Queens enjoy paying $6 for a box of cereal from local stores that continuously take advantage of them because of the lack of competition from businesses that can bring economies of scale to their neighborhood? One only needs to look at the transformation that has taken place on 20th Avenue in Whitestone, Queens, with the emergence of Target and BJ’s several years ago to see the positive affects of these stores. As someone who patronizes that shopping location weekly, I have yet to experience the traffic problems that our City Council says such stores bring, despite there being only one available exit off the Whitestone Expressway. Instead I have seen hundreds of jobs created and a number of other stores open around them, including Babies “R” Us, TJ Max, Circuit City, Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Old Navy. As is always the case when a Wal-Mart, Target, or BJ’s comes to an area, other stores will follow to benefit from the flow of traffic creating more jobs and an increase in product selection at lower prices for the consumer. Nor has the emergence of such stores hurt property values as the surrounding neighborhood has seen property prices surge in the last three years.

Finally, the obvious reason behind the attack on these companies at the expense of the consumer and unemployed, is the local organized labor unions that fill the campaign coffers of our local representatives. These unions, which do nothing but promote mediocrity, should look beyond whether a store is union or not and instead at the economic gains it will bring to the community in the form of jobs, cost of goods, and increased property value. The local unions and the puppet council members who go with them should stop preventing the buildup of our great city and start worrying about what our citizens really need: cheaper products and jobs, not larger outdated unions that cost the community more than it contributes.

NICHOLAS J.VERTUCCI
Finance Chairman
New York Young Republican Club
Manhattan

‘Save the Plaza’

Re: “Save the Plaza,” Peter Ward, Opinion, February 28, 2005. The AFL-CIO should invest a small percentage of their assets in real estate.

Purchase the Plaza for market value and keep running it as a hotel. Keep losing money on the hotel and distribute the losses amongst their membership.

Why isn’t an investor allowed to do with his money what he wants to do?

NATHAN MANDEL
Flushing, N.Y.

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