A LETTER TO OUR LEADER

By Edwin Cooney

Dear President Obama,

Since you’re a politician running for re-election this year and I’m a voter whose opinions I’m told are as sacred if not as important as yours, I thought you might be interested in my reaction to your latest foreign policy venture.

Not that it’s been easy, but I’ve been with you from the beginning.  I voted for you twice in 2008: once during the primary when the then  “shrewish” Hillary Clinton was going around the country crying  “shame on you, Barack Obama!” and again in November when “Big Bad John” McCain and ”sidekick” Sara Palin were attempting to deny you and “jovial Joe” Biden the political victory you so richly deserved.  Since November 2008, Mrs. Clinton has been transformed into a worthy and respected Secretary of State,  Joe Biden has served as your invaluable assistant,  Senator McCain has become a mere critic and Ms. Palin has permanently gone moose- (or is it Russian-) hunting from her helicopter in Alaska. 

Since January 20^th, 2009, I’ve had your back whether seated in an armchair or atop a bar stool at my favorite watering hole.  I’ve battled those unrealistic Liberals who’ve criticized you for not getting behind single payer healthcare.  I’ve wrestled with those nasty Conservatives as they’ve labeled you a socialist, denied your Christianity and natural citizenship and called you a liar during your address to Congress in the summer of 2009.  (I can’t even begin to imagine the intensity of Conservative outrage had Barney Frank shouted at President Reagan in that way when he was addressing Congress!) However, I’m writing to you because, as much as I’m still with you, you make me nervous sometimes.

Last week, from Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan, you used the anniversary of your execution of Osama Bin Laden to announce a new phase in our relationship with Afghanistan.

The more I ponder your plan, Mr. President, the better I like it.  Its five components are simple and verifiable enough.  They are:

the steady and irreversible “Afghanization” of the struggle within Afghanistan against al-Qaeda;

the increase in and strengthening of the Afghanian security forces combating al-Qaeda;

our steady withdrawal from Afghanistan as we supply their security forces with the necessary equipment to combat counter-terrorism and strengthen democratic institutions within their borders;

a political settlement with the Taliban, the same organization President Reagan supported against the Soviets back in the 1980s, providing the Taliban permanently breaks with al-Qaeda;

and, finally, arranging with our NATO allies to provide ongoing military and economic support to an independent Afghanistan for the foreseeable future.

As I say, all of these things sound logical, doable, and even verifiable.  What nags at my Liberal or -- if you prefer -- Progressive conscience is the “reactionary” tone of too many of your recent statements on matters of foreign policy.

I confess that I’m quite comfortable with the absence of Osama Bin Laden and I’m equally comfortable with the jealousy voiced by Conservatives because you, rather than President George W. Bush, eliminated Osama Bin Laden.  (I know they’d appreciate it very much Mr. President if you didn’t mention your removal of the Bin Laden threat during the upcoming campaign!)

Having said all that, Mr. President, you make me less than comfortable every time you brag about your elimination of Bin Laden.  After all, don’t most Progressives (or Liberals, if you prefer) believe that we should regret killing of any kind, necessary as it may be, rather than celebrated?  Every time you gloat over your destruction of Osama Bin Laden, I long for the good old days when Lyndon B. Johnson slew his enemies “…with a heavy heart!”

Another thing you have a tendency to do lately, Mr. President, is to get too snuggly with the military.  According to our Conservative cousins, the rank and file of the military (patriotic as they are) are little more than contemptuous of you!  Hence, as you snuggle, they supposedly sneer.

Finally, like every president since Ronald Reagan, you close most of your speeches by asking God to bless America.  As long as you’re seeking God’s blessing, why not be happy with God’s blessings on all humankind!

Of course, I’m not and never will be President of the United States.  Thus I can only view the national and international political, socio/economic scene from the perspective of your lofty perch.  Still, I am a taxpayer and the Tea Party assures me that, as such, I’m the absolute guardian of all that’s wise and even that which may still be holy in America.

Yes, indeed, Mr. President, sometimes you make me nervous because I’m invariably forced, residing in this free society as I do, to come to grips with a reality that’s more scary than anything you have ever done. 

That reality is the likelihood that someone in this broad land of ours has a better sense than I do of what really matters

Oh! One more thing, Mr. President.  Is it true that Secretary of State Clinton calls you every morning at 3?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY