Thursday, March 31, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Ever wonder why politicians have such a bad reputation? Why people get so fed up with their hypocrisy and lies, their disregard for the average Joe that they join fringe groups like the Tea Party? Here’s a few examples. You said we went into Libya for humanitarian reasons, to impose a No-fly Zone, save lives and protect the rebels against certain massacre by Qaddafi. Well, we’ve been there ten days now, sent a steady stream of missiles, rockets and bombs raining down on Qaddafi’s forces and stopped his Air Force from flying, but it hasn’t stopped his ground forces. So now we’re sending in teams of CIA operatives to assist the rebels and direct air strikes, flying Predator and Global Hawk drones, and debating whether to arm the rebels. This is “armed diplomacy” which has never worked in the past and won’t now. Death and destruction is not humanitarian; it only breeds more violence, more misery, more hatred. This is war, pure and simple, and all your euphemisms and high-flown rhetoric won’t change that. Bush, in his ignorance and hubris, declared himself The War President but I think that title belongs to you. Unequivocally. And here’s another little sleight of hand. “We’ve turned over control of the mission to NATO.” Well, sure we have. And who’s the NATO commander? None other than Admiral James Stavridis, a four-star U.S. Navy Admiral! But I bet you knew that all along, didn’t you, Mr. President? The old shell game politicians have played on the public for generations. You’re a master at it. One more example: your promise to protect the environment and undo the harm your predecessor did. A few days ago, the EPA’s long-anticipated plan to curb fish kills at power plants was released for public review. The plan? To let each state environmental agency decide what each site-specific fix should be. “Industry officials breathed a sigh of relief” while the Natural Resources Defense Counsel and Riverkeeper contend that this allows power plants and other large industrial facilities "to continue destroying billions of fish and overheating trillions of gallons of water from the nation's rivers, lakes, estuaries, and marine waters." No different than the Bushies. Like every politician, once you got elected, all those campaign promises vanished like chaff in the wind. And finally, Bradley Manning. Eleven months of unwarranted solitary confinement. This is torture. On your watch. By your administration. When will you end this nightmare and injustice?

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

 Imagine my surprise when a letter from The White House arrived in today’s mail. I admit, my first reaction was, it’s probably a warning that my letters are threatening and that I’m going on the No Fly list as a potential terrorist. But nothing so grandiose as that. Instead, a form letter thanking me for sharing my thoughts and how you appreciate hearing from me, blah blah blah. A full page without addressing a single issue I’ve written about over the past four months, nothing about Bradley Manning, the use of torture, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, renditions, the erosion of democracy here at home, the unconscionable tax cuts you rammed through Congress last year, nothing. Frankly, Mr. President, your letter was a distinct disappointment. I thought you’d at least have the courtesy to talk about one of those many issues, but no, instead you talk about all the reforms you’ve instituted, how you’ve called for more transparency in government and how you’ve imposed tougher ethics standards than any administration in history. Sounds more like a campaign letter than a response to a concerned citizen. I was neither impressed nor convinced by anything in the letter. Like I said, I was really disappointed: 71 letters to you and this is what I get back? My initial suspicion that no one pays attention to the contents of these letters has been confirmed. Now, however, I suspect that the only purpose they serve is to add a name to your campaign mailing list. Well, forget it, Mr. President, I’m not voting for you in 2012 no matter who’s running against you. And I’m not contributing to your re-election campaign either, neither with money or time. No way, no way, no way. You’ve broken every campaign promise that was important to me and made a mockery of every reason I voted for you in 2008. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I thought I’d learned my lesson years ago, but I got to admit, you’re a slick tongued politician and you conned me good the first time around. But Democrats and Republicans alike, you’re all Republicrats at heart. I’m back to voting for people with integrity and honesty even if they don’t have a hope in hell of winning. From now on it’s strictly the Green and the Peace and Freedom parties for me. So save your postage, save your phone calls. You’ve disappointed me in as many ways as you possibly can. The only communication I want to hear from you is the one saying you’ve freed Bradley Manning.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

While you control the U.S. media, it’s more difficult to control what gets reported elsewhere. A case in point: Der Spiegel’s March 20 issue carrying photos of U.S. soldiers from the 5^th Stryker Brigade, 2^nd Infantry Division holding up their trophy kills by the hair: corpses of Afghan civilians they just murdered. Reportedly, these men from the “Kill Team” made a sport of killing randomly chosen Afghans. When a fellow soldier reported it he was severely beaten for betraying them. The military suppressed the photos until Der Spiegel got their hands on them and published them. No apparent involvement by WikiLeaks there, Mr. President, just a publication doing what it’s supposed to do: publish the truth. Three things are apparent from this episode. One is the extent to which the American press is a propaganda arm of the administration and the military. Second, that U.S. soldiers are no different from any other soldiers throughout history – that they are trained to kill and that killing causes people to lose their moral compass. We have seen it before – My Lai, Abu Ghraib – our army is as brutal as any other army – Hitler’s SS, Qaddafi’s “loyalists”, Caesar’s Roman Legions, et. al. Third is that while Jeremy Morlock, one of the accused Kill Team members. has been held in an Army stockade in solitary confinement since June 2010, Bradley Manning has been in solitary confinement since May 2010 but in a Marine brig under Prevention Of Injury conditions. And while Morlock’s trial starts tomorrow, Manning still has no trial date set. Atrocities seem to carry less severe punishment than the reporting of them. In spite of your campaign rhetoric extolling the importance of whistle-blowers, your actions are just the opposite. Your administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers than any previous administration in American history. Not a record to be proud of, Mr. President. When are you going to recognize the futility and moral evil of these wars and stop them? They infect every facet of our lives. They are counterproductive, stupid, immoral. Killing and violence does nothing more than foster more killing and violence. And when will you follow the lead of the rest of the civilized world and outlaw solitary confinement, an inhumane punishment without purpose. An estimated 80,000 prisoners are “in the Hole” in U.S. prisons on any given day. This does not speak well of the U.S. or of you that you continue this barbaric practice.

Free Bradley Manning!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

While your CIA assassins kill Pakistani citizens by remote control using armed drones, WikiLeaks strikes another blow for democracy by exposing the truth behind the diplomatic lies and hypocrisy of governments. The latest release of U.S. diplomatic cables shows the blatant corruption of India’s ruling party, the Congress Party, handing out bribes in cash and jet airplanes(!) in return for favorable votes on a nuclear bill. Who’s the criminal here, the nameless CIA assassins who kill innocent civilians or the whistle-blowers who believe that people are entitled to know the truth? Who deserves to be locked up for 9 months in solitary confinement in a Marine brig under the harshest conditions, the CIA assassins or the truth-tellers? It’s clear to me that Bradley Manning – if he actually leaked all that classified information to WikiLeaks – is a patriot and hero of democracy and should be recognized as such. Instead, he’s locked up for 11 months without a trial, without a hearing, without any recourse, for 9 months  under maximum security conditions that are nothing short of torture. Under your watch, Mr. President. He is your responsibility and you do nothing to rectify this terrible injustice. But that’s part of your pattern: you do nothing to promote democratic revolutions in the Middle East; you do nothing to stop the assault on democracy by right-wing conservatives here at home; and you do nothing to turn your slogan of Hope, Change and Transformation from an empty promise into reality. You are failing on every level, Mr. President. You are not defending freedom, democracy and truth, but rather, enabling tyrants and dictators, furthering oppression and injustice. You do nothing to stop the Saudis from sending troops and tanks into Bahrain where they brutally murder protesters and crush the nascent movement for democracy, do nothing in Libya but utter empty threats to Qaddafi to stop the slaughter of his own people, do nothing in Yemen, in Jordan, in Syria... We need more Bradley Mannings and fewer CIA assassins. We need more truth and less lies, more honesty and less hypocrisy, more compassion and involvement and less careless disregard for the “democratic aspirations” (your phrase) of the oppressed. Your callousness toward Bradley Manning’s plight is yet another moral failure in an ongoing string of moral failures.

Free Bradley Manning!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

It’s pretty clear now that rather than putting an end to the torture of prisoners, you’ve decided to expand it to include not only “enemy combatants” and alleged terrorists, but to U.S. citizens who disagree with the policies of your regime. The conditions under which Pfc. Bradley Manning is being held, constitute torture in the opinion of many psychiatrists and those of us who’ve bothered to read about his treatment by the military. They are similar in many ways to the manner in which Abu Zubaydah was tortured in 2002. Manning has yet to be brought to trial after 10 months of incarceration, most of that time in solitary confinement and all of that time under inhumane unjustified conditions. Regardless of guilt or innocence, Bradley Manning is a U.S. citizen protected by the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, international law and basic human rights, all of which have been blatantly ignored and trampled. Even P.J. Crowley, neither a pacifist nor a bleeding heart liberal by any means, declared Manning’s treatment “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid,” a breach in your official position and therefore he was removed post haste. So much for freedom of speech in your administration. But his statement caused that embarrassing question in your press conference about the treatment of Bradley Manning, to which you replied – with a straight face – that the Pentagon assured you he is not being mistreated. What lies! What hypocrisy! Sickening. But alas, part of the pattern. Your promise to stop the torture of prisoners was a lie. You’ve expanded it to U.S. citizens. First Manning. Who’s next? Your vow to end the misbegotten wars was a lie; the war in Afghanistan has been expanded and we still have 47,000 troops in Iraq. You’ve increased and expanded incursions by Special Forces and teams of CIA assassins into Pakistan; drone strikes have more than tripled. (I read today where drones are used in Mexico – Mexico! – in the drug war, another phony war that will never be won with guns and planes and violence. Where should we look for drones next? LA? New York City? Chicago?) Whatever happened to truth and democracy and freedom? The Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, the rule of law? You’ve protected none of them. You sold out. You’re turning into a tyrant, a Hitler, a Hussein, a Qaddafi, a Mubarak. You are no better than your predecessor, a menace to our country and to the world. Do the right thing Mr. President, Free Bradley Manning!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Either you’ve been misinformed about the conditions under which Pfc. Bradley Manning is being held or you’re lying, and neither bodes well for the president of the United States. I was appalled that at your press conference on Friday, you stated, “I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards… They assured me that they are.” The Pentagon is lying. For nine months Bradley Manning has spent 23 hour a day locked in a cell in the Marine brig at Quantico, let out to “exercise” one hour a day in a bare room where he can only walk around the room. He is without newspapers, magazines, radio, or TV, and outside contact is restricted to his lawyer and one visitor a week for one hour. Is this your definition of “basic standards?” For the past week, Private Manning has been stripped naked every night and forced to stand at attention naked during morning inspection before his clothes are returned. This is not for his safety, Mr. President – Navy psychiatrists have declared Manning, “not a suicide risk,” – this is cruel and unusual punishment, humiliation, a way to increase pressure on him to implicate Julian Assange so your Injustice Department can charge Mr. Assange with a crime and shut down WikiLeaks. This is beyond despicable. These are the tactics of a Mubarak, Hussein or Qaddafi. Private Manning has not been convicted of any crime and yet he’s been held in solitary confinement for more than nine months. So much for innocent until proven guilty. Another freedom gone. This is neither justice nor the rule of law, Mr. President, something you promised to restore, this is torture, this is against every principle of a democratic nation. This is unconscionable brutality and disregard of human rights and human dignity. Psychologists for Social Responsibility have also declared his treatment torture. None of the classified information he is accused of leaking to WikiLeaks has put anyone in harm’s way, simply exposed the hypocrisy and lies of governments around the world, including our own. If Mr. Manning is the one who leaked this information, then I would call him a patriot, for he has exposed the truth and furthered democracy. And yet, you side with injustice. Shame on you, Mr. President. The torture of Bradley Manning must end. You can stop it. Do it. Today. Do not let this injustice and brutality continue.

Free Bradley Manning!