Are you a dog person?

There could not be a more apt description of a dog than “man's best friend.” Everyone knows what it means. If My Dawnie is taking a walk and Doris, our Blue Heeler is along, I have absolutely no concern for her safety.

I became furious last week as I read that our State De-partment was sending dogs to foreign governments to sniff out bombs and they were al-lowing them to die from starva-tion and disease. The story I read in the Wall Street Journal stated that a whistleblower complaint triggered a halt to the program for Egypt and Jordan.

The fact that this story obviously triggered my emo-tions because dogs were being abused, shows a certain level of apathy on my part. Puppies and babies can bring us to our senses on things like this. There's nothing wrong with it. Puppies and babies are back-door activists.

There are about 135 bomb-sniffing dogs provided to Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Bah-rain, Lebanon, Nepal, the Do-minican Republic, and Afghan-istan. The program has cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dol-lars. These countries have a history of cultural hatred and fear of dogs.

I dashed off emails to our “watchdog,” Senator Grassley and foreign war advocate, Senator Joni Ernst with no reply so far. But then I've been badgering them both for years seeking an explanation of how our government's involvement in these countries is of any benefit to U.S. taxpayers.

As is often the case in sto-ries like this, it doesn't stop with dogs who, as the ASPCA described them, are “malnourished, tick-infested, overworked and filthy.” Are the dogs the only victims here? The cost is tiny if itemized per taxpayer, unless we follow the story to its logical end.

Are these countries where we send dogs to be ignored and tortured our allies? Ha! What a joke. If they won't sniff out their own bombs and contribute as an ally should, we shouldn't have anything to do with them. And if you think that is a heartless viewpoint, take a look at the battered veterans around us. What is heartless is to ignore our gov-ernment's illogical support of so-called allies who never con-tribute to the safety of the people of our homeland.

Let's rein in big government now. Find homes for these dogs where they will be loved and cared for. But most of all, let's begin respecting our ser-vicemen and using their skills and ambition to protect our country instead of conducting useless adventures for the cro-nies of our elitist leadership.

Our babies and dogs can better serve us here than over there.

Any responses to The Alternative may be sent as a letter to the editor or to Fritz’s email address 4selfgovernment@gmail.com. His blog, www.alternativebyfritz.com, is now being updated regularly. It's diverse, like the universities claim to be.