Resign, Mr. President

Dear Mr President,

I write to you as a concerned American. Not as a member of a political party, not as a partisan, and not as a voter.

I am a veteran of eight years of service in our armed forces and am a career law enforcement officer. I am a husband and a father, and I care about my country.

I think it is important that I tell you that I didn't vote for you, although I did work as a volunteer for your Father's campaign, at national headquarters, in 1992.

I think, Mr President, that it is time for our country to face a few stark facts about our involvement in Iraq. It should be clear to all, by now, that the military situation in Iraq is getting worse. Indeed, it was reported in the Washington Post today that you, yourself, said that "we aren't winning, we aren't losing" in Iraq. I, and countless thousands, maybe millions, of others appreciate your candor.

I happen to be among those that agree with you in your current assessment, sir. Militarily, the militias and fighters engaging our valiant men-at-arms haven't got a prayer of defeating us on the field of battle, indeed I don't believe that any nation or conceivable group of nations could do that. Our people are brave and well-led, and our forces are strong.

What is glaringly obvious to me, and I hope to you and your advisers, is that our forces cannot create a condition wherein a stable, viable, democratic, multi-ethnic, self-defensible, Iraqi government can emerge, or having emerged, survive.

Iran and Syria are key figures in this arena. It is as plain as the nose on my face that they are aiding and abetting the insurgents, militias, and foreign fighters. I'm sure you know this as well, but, the question is: What can we do to get them to stop? The simple answer is: Nothing.

We are stuck in Iraq, sir. Stuck, with no way to victory as you have described it.

I realize that it is the policy of your administration not to "cut and run". I know that you believe that to leave Iraq, we would be showing weakness. I must disagree. The only real option we have, sir, is to declare victory and go home.

Saddam Hussein is deposed. Iraq has a functioning court system. Iraq must be left to find it's own way, because at this point, our forces only serve as magnets for foreign instigators. Our soldiers and Marines are now fighting over the corpse of the old Iraq which will, with a certainty, eventually become the Islamic Republic of Iraq.

Mr President, our men & women were sent to invade that country at your command. Those men and women believed, as good American soldiers should, that they were sent to war for the safety and security of OUR nation. They were misled. They were misled by you, sir. Misled by your sketchy (and untrue) message about weapons of mass destruction. They were misled by your statements (and by the statements of your senior staff) about fighting terrorism in Baghdad instead of the streets of America. They were misled about AL Qaeda-Iraqi cooperation in the 9/11 attacks. They were misled about the Iraqi military threat. They were misled about Iraq being the central front of the war on terror. Surely, sir, your advisers must have told you what any FBI agent worth his/her salt must know: You can't defeat terrorism with conventional armed forces.

By now, Mr President, nearly three thousand Americans have been killed in Iraq... and it is your fault. As Commander-In-Chief, that responsibility lies on your head. I believe that you owe it to the people of this country, to do the honorable thing: Resign.

Resign, Mr President. Accept your moral obligation to the memory of our dead soldiers. Accept your moral obligation to the families who have lost loved ones. Accept your moral obligation to the countless thousands of dead Iraqi civilians that your invasion has killed. Accept your moral obligation as a world leader.

I have heard that you are a Christian, sir, and I am glad to know it, and as such I have to ask you: Would Christ himself ever have ordained all of this, just to depose a bad man? Would Christ have ordained any of this, noble intentions or not, when it is all based on a tissue of lies and deception? Somehow, I don't think so.

For Shame, sir.

Resign, Mr President. You owe it to our dead. You owe it to our country.

I have been, and will continue, praying for you.

Respectfully,

Gunfighter

(Note: This is the text of a letter I sent to the White House, this morning)