Day 48
Dear Mr. President,
When I made the decision to write my LTTP’s (Letter to the President), one every day for a year, I told myself that the topics were endless, that each day brought a series of new topics to write about. For the most part that’s been true, but today as I’ve been contemplating today’s topics, I must confess that I’m a bit overwhelmed. I try to do as much ‘research’ as possible by reading a variety of articles, or in some cases, Government documents, so that I can articulate my thoughts in a cohesive manner. Quite often the more I read about any given topic, the less sure I am about how I feel or what I believe… the end result is that I am often overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed at the complexity of the problems that you face every day. Problems that you have to make decisions about… I only have to think about them. Quite frankly I don’t know how you do it. I barely scratch the surface of any given topic, but you need to have “all” of the “facts” before you can make a decision that may affect millions of people.
Sometimes I think you get it wrong, not often, but sometimes. I don’t know if the people you rely on to gather the information you need are not doing a thorough job, or if they are simply giving you what they “think” you need to know. Most of the time when one of your decisions has been a bit ‘off’ it is usually because of some “unintended consequence” of a decision… something that was unforeseen.
Tomorrow you are expected to call for a major withdrawal of our troops in Afghanistan. I know that you have been giving this a great deal of thought because this is one of those things you can’t afford to get wrong by not considering the unintended consequences. I also know that you are between a rock and a hard place no matter what you decide.
Poll after poll shows the ‘people’ want these wars to end, they want our troops home and the money spent here at home. The members of the House and the Senate are being pressured by the ‘people’ to end the wars and redirect the huge cost of those wars to cutting the deficit and creating jobs here at home. The ‘Generals’ want a slow controlled withdrawal so as not to undermine the security gains.
This war has been going on for over 10 years, you did not start this war, but there are roughly 100,000 U.S. troops there now… three times as many as when you took office. That is not what you promised, you promised to bring the wars to an end. Although there are already articles about just how many troops you plan to bring home, I hope you ‘knock the socks off ‘of everyone, and actually bring home more than people expect. It’s what the people want, it’s what the country wants, and it’s what the families of those soldiers deserve.
You are the “Commander-in-Chief”… you make the decision… I will be listening.
Most Respectfully,
Your Gadfly Granny
Marcia Reimers
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