Obama "Protects" America

Dear Mr. President,

Got your November 26 letter yesterday. This one, like the others, filled with spin, misdirection and outright lies. You depict the assassination of bin Laden as “bringing to justice a terrorist responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women, and children…” The murder of an unarmed man in the dead of night by a team of assassins in a country we are not at war with is not justice but lawless disregard for justice. And when you speak of a terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children, look in the mirror, Mr. President; you are responsible for more than 3,000 deaths of men, women and children by drone strikes in Pakistan alone; more thousands in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and other places around the world where you perceive enemies. As for your claim to have ended the war in Iraq and brought all the troops home, another piece of spin. You and your generals wanted to keep a permanent force there but Iraq refused and we left with nothing accomplished but death, destruction and lasting enmity. As for “our strong partnership with the Iraqi people in the support of Iraq’s development and peace and security in the region,” the news reports just the opposite: daily bombings and violence while Iraq’s government draws closer to our sworn enemy, Iran. Unlike Iraq, you may succeed in establishing a permanent force in Afghanistan since Karzai knows he cannot stay in power without the U.S. military but again, Afghanistan is a mockery of freedom and another lost war based on lies and ignorance. “As Commander in Chief, I have no greater responsibility than keeping the American people safe,” you wrote. The only true line in your letter, but unfortunately, you’re doing just the opposite. Institutionalizing endless war against phantom enemies numbs us to the injustice and violence done in our name. Targeted Assassinations create more enemies who vow revenge; disrespect for human rights, freedom and justice by supporting autocrats and suppressive regimes gains us no allies; and the steady erosion of Constitutional safeguards through laws that criminalizes protest, that permits the military to incarcerate anyone indefinitely, that gives the government unlimited power to monitor everyone everywhere, does not safeguard the American people but, enslaves us in tyranny and fear. You are not making us safer; rather, you are destroying the soul of our nation and erasing the history and memory of freedom and justice and democracy.