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To the editor:
Mayor Adams said that the migrant crisis “will destroy New York City,” Has he forgotten this is a city that has successfully survived countless crises since its 17th century founding? One such example was the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center that killed nearly 3,000 people, was commemorated Monday on its 22nd anniversary.
The attacks had devastating consequences for the country. The Bush/Cheney administration immediately began the war on terror which is now approaching its 23rd year.
By fighting endless wars, checks and balances implemented after presidential abuses during the Vietnam War, Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal were undermined or forgotten.
The National Security State grew even more powerful with significant increases in the military budget and domestic surveillance, an unjustified invasion and occupation of Iraq, and a 20-year occupation of Afghanistan. The Cost of War project at Brown University found that from 2001 to 2021, “post 9/11 wars have cost the U.S. an estimated $8 trillion dollars and have killed more than 900,000 people.”
The Biden administration, with bipartisan support from a complicit Congress, has not only continued the war on terror, but also added a dangerous new Cold War against Russia and China. This includes military and economic policies to weaken and contain China, and a proxy war in Ukraine.
In August, U.S. officials said, “troop deaths and injuries in the Ukraine War [were] near 500,000.” Recently at the G20 summit, with the war becoming a deadly stalemate, U.S. officials made a questionable claim that they were “pressing for peace in Ukraine.” Washington’s policies clearly show the opposite.
Howard Elterman
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reenjoe
You forgot to add that NYC has faced the exact types of events before and not only survived, but, thrived. Like when several hundred thousand Eastern European Jews, mostly from Russia and Ukraine, flooded NYC in the late 1980's following the collapse of the Soviet Union, specifically Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. I lived only a couple of miles away and don't recall anyone calling it a crisis or saying it was destroying NYC, despite the numbers of migrants/asylum seekers being 2 to 3 times larger than today. New migrants to NYC will save the city, not destroy it, as immigration provides new workers with fresh skills and young families to keep the city vibrant. Perhaps immigration will reverse the downward population trend that sees NY losing representation in D.C.
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