Forecast for Tuesday 23 June 2009

June 22, 2009

President Obama,

It is my duty to inform you that your campaign in Afghanistan is a mistake.

When I heard you talk about “winning” in Afghanistan and capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, I felt sick at heart. That was last summer. I was worried and even felt I could not support you. I did decide to vote for you (for completely other reasons).

But I cannot support the killing of civilians by “drone” planes. That is cowardice. A man who cannot look his supposed enemy in the eye, but kills him with poison gas or a drone plane, unpiloted, is despicable.

Please try to restore our faith in our country. We are not evil, cowardly, or despicable people.

And so how can we support evil, cowardly and despicable policies?

You are not winning the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan or Pakistan or anywhere by these hideous missions which kill people at random.

I try to inform myself about what “we” are doing over there. I do not want innocent blood on my hands because I voted for you.

So I read the newspapers and try to understand what “we” are doing in Afghanistan.

And I have to tell you: It makes no sense to me at all. The more details I read, the more chaotic and pointless it seems.

Who is the enemy? Do you know? Have you met him? Last year's enemy, this year's; last month's, or this month's; last week's, or this week's? Which tribe, or combination of tribes? Which leader or leaders? Do you really know who and where they are? And how do you count the new enemies you make, and balance them on a table against the old ones you have killed? When you miss a commander you aim at and kill his nephew instead, as you did last week, who can measure the new rage against America with which he and his relatives will be possessed until their dying day?

How is angering and outraging the people of those mountainous regions going to protect America?

Please reconsider. You say you are a Christian. So am I, that is, I try to understand the teachings of Jesus, every day, by studying a chapter of the Gospels every morning. After doing that today, and praying, I had to write you this letter.

In the name of our Lord Christ Jesus, please reconsider your policies in Afghanistan.

Where there is a will there is a way for nonviolent answers. If we trust God and ask His guidance, we will find them.

Hugh Howard Higgins