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(I began this shortly before the President began to speak. These are my thoughts and not those of other members of the editorial board.)
Dear President Obama:
Keith Olbermann last night spoke passionately against your Big Escalation, an escalation we cannot afford, cannot bear and ought not to undertake. It will not keep us any safer. So, not one single life is worth it. It is yours now, this awful and never ending war.
I resent that you are making it ours. I will resent it every day this country's fiscal health is hammered and every day the Republican Noise Machine, along with the Blue Dogs, join to subvert the entire safety net--because you have done this. You are spending health care reform right down the sewer. Your are compromising everything that really makes this nation great. (And that's not war.)
In a few moments, you will begin speaking to the nation. I will not be listening. It has become clear you do not care what the majority of Americans think. By the way, we, the majority, think it's wrong. We think it's unsupportable. We think it's unaffordable. And we think it's a huge mistake from a security perspective.
I will not listen tonight because you haven't listened to us, about much of anything. And until or unless you do, I am tuning you out. It pains me to say this because I have supported you, both in the primary, the general election and until now. I have supported you even as you threw health care "reform" to the wind, only to be watered down and rendered useless, and as you waffled on many, many other issues. |
| But what is worse, you listen to the same endless fantasies which purport that if you only commit this many more troops, things will be "better." It's the song of the military-industrial complex, which will never be satisfied unless there is war without end, more weapons to replace and more weapons systems to sell.
What is your definition of "better?" Should more soldiers die? Should tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of innocent civilians die? Is a life less valuable because a drone kills it? Should more doors be kicked in as people sleep? Is this what we want? This is what we buy into when we buy into war. Will you say we must rebuild Afghanistan? What about our own country, Mr. President?
And why do you possibly think we will "win" in a country where no one else from outside ever has. American "exceptionalism?" We are only showing here that we are exceptionally stupid, as stupid as Dick Cheney, who talks emptily about "exceptionalism." The man is an idiot, Mr. President. Why do you listen to the likes of him, as you apparently have? You are incredibly bright, Mr. President. I thought you had learned the terrible lessons of history? I really did. And I wonder, do you get that our troops, by their mere presence, enhance the recruitment efforts of our enemies? What are you thinking? I now fear that, like your predecessor, you are lost. This puzzles me because I still believe you are essentially a good person.
Did not the former administration leave to you a mess in every sphere? Why are you now furthering almost all of their ruinous policies? Meanwhile you leave us to fend for ourselves. It is as if you ask us, the citizens, to push many rocks of Sisyphus up hill, all at the same time, all alone, while you continue down the same pathways the previous administration did. What has happened to you, Mr. President?
Health care reform, the terrible economic disaster (still unfolding and not fixed), the neglected environment, global warming, our food supply, education (my God, you gave us Arne Duncan!) are all in serious trouble. A new round of foreclosures looms. And without Congressional action we will default on our obligations. Can you not see the Republicans are salivating for that to happen? Some of them even want us to default, so they can drown needed government services and the entire safety net in the proverbial bathtub. Our infrastructure is collapsing. When will you ever learn?
When will you learn that in this country the president calls the shots, not General McChrystal? As Olbermann points out, this is the same General McChrystal who has some credibility problems in the Pat Tillman case. But now he gets to decide not only Afghanistan, but also what we can afford to do otherwise?
I am beyond disillusioned, Mr. President. And an activist becoming so disillusioned, says a lot. Change we can believe in? Not a chance. I've heard it argued that the White House is also purposefully distancing itself from and dissing your progressive base. Good luck with that too. Why is it only Dems who throw their own "side of the aisle" under the bus?
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