President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
I am a registered Democrat, made a very modest contribution to your
campaign, and voted for you last November. I am very proud of the fact
that you became the President of the United States. On January 20th,
my teenage daughter traveled to Washington, DC for your inauguration,
and she returned hopeful that the country was entering a new era of
responsibility and peace, in spite of serious challenges and
difficulties.
This is why I am so disappointed by your decision to escalate the war
in Afghanistan by sending 17,000 more troops to that country in the
next few days.
Mr. President: The terrorist crime of 9/11/2001 required an adequate
response to punish the perpetrators and reduce the danger of further
attacks. Our nation has a right to defend itself against terrorism.
But that is no excuse to attack anybody unilaterally, even less so a
poor, broken country like Afghanistan.
Terrorism of the form that hit us on 9/11 is an international criminal
issue that needs to be addressed forcefully, but with the restrain and
sense of proportion with which civilized societies deal with crime,
large or small. International terrorism is an international-law
enforcement issue. In the last analysis, international terrorism is
not the product of decontextualized evil, but the result of unhealthy
economic and social conditions that war, and the social dislocation
that follows it, can only worsen. It needs to be dealt with through
international cooperation, and within the confines of international
law. The "War on Terror," a horrible slogan, should only
metaphorically be a war. The horse must be ahead of the cart.
As it was conducted, the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan under
president Bush started wrong. Even if few Americans viewed it that
way, especially as it was accompanied by president Bush's bullying
rhetoric ("If you are not with us, you are against us"), a large
number of people abroad perceived it as an arrogant act of unilateral
aggression, the prideful lashing out by the richest and most powerful
nation on earth against a small broken nation on the excuse of killing
the evildoers. It was an error that must be repaired, not compounded.
And it can only be repaired if we take responsibility, admit that the
action and the whole approach were wrong, and act accordingly. When
the most powerful nation in history acts as if might makes right, it
loses its moral standing, and exposes itself to even greatest dangers.
What goes around does come around.
We must not send more troops to Afghanistan. Moreover, urgently, we
must pull out the troops already there, and take another approach. If
you, Mr. President, do not pursue this course, I am convinced that it
will end wrong, at great cost in lives, treasury, and international
good will.
Pulling our troops out of Afghanistan is only a first step. With the
same sense of urgency, our nation should lead the world with an
initiative to rebuild the system of international law, make it
binding, and supply it with sufficient resources, proportional to the
size of our economy, to make it capable of dealing effectively with
terrorism, crime, and other global threats. It is crucial that this
process be globally democratic in nature, so that it gains global
popular legitimacy, sine qua non for the system to be functional and
effective. It is in the best interest of the American people to build
such a system. Such approach is in the best traditions of American
statesmanship, as witnessed by the role that President Franklin D.
Roosevelt played in spearheading the United Nations in 1945.
It is true, Mr. President, that such an initiative requires a a
healthy measure of respect for all citizens in the rest of the world,
as well as a rock-solid commitment to the plight of regular
working-class and middle-class Americans, on whose shoulders
ultimately fall the burdens of our foreign policy failures. It takes a
commitment strong enough to challenge the grip that demagogues and
powerful special interests -- like what President Eisenhower once
called the industrial-military complex -- have on our foreign policy.
But as challenging as that course might be, Mr. President, if you were
to take it, you will count with my unconditional support and -- I
assure you -- that of millions of people of good faith in the U.S. and
the world.
Mr. President: Reverse your decision. Do not send more troops to
Afghanistan. Pull all the troops from Afghanistan (and Iraq). Take an
effective approach to dealing with international terrorism, regional
conflicts, civil wars, and other problems that spill over
internationally. Lead a globally democratic process to build a
legitimate and binding system of international law, and commit our
country to abiding by it. Emphasize (fair) trade and cooperation as
the basis for economic development in the poorer regions of the world.
It is in the best interest of regular working-class and middle-class
Americans to whom you owe the presidency. It's doable. It's urgent.
Sincerely,
Julio Huato
531 41st Street C9
Brooklyn, NY 11232
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