VFP LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA -

"WE ARE ANGRY" ABOUT AFGHANISTAN! {PDF}

VETERANS FOR PEACE
NATIONAL OFFICE: 216 S. Meramec Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63105
PHONE: (314) 725-6005 FAX: (314) 725-7103 Email
Working Together For Peace and Justice since 1985

NATIONAL BOARD
OF DIRECTORS
Mike Ferner
President
Leah Bolger
Vice-President
Kenneth Mayers
Treasurer
Gary May
Secretary
Elliott Adams
William Collins
Anita Foster
Nate Goldshlag
Sharon Kufeldt
Patrick McCann
Michael Uhl
Hart Viges
Rev. Pierre Williams
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR
Michael T.
McPhearson

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
May 12, 2009

Dear President Obama,

We write to you again, this time to say we are saddened to see that you now clearly believe
in the tired, inhumane and unworkable assumption that violence will somehow work; that
might makes right. But that is not the only thing we need to tell you.
We are not just saddened. We are angry. We are outraged by these actions, this practice of
“death from above” you are ordering, causing the killing and wounding of hundreds of
innocent people, as exemplified by the recent horrific attacks in Afghanistan.
When will it be enough, Mr. President? What is the number of dead and injured at which
you will say “this can’t go on;” the number at which you will decide it’s time to turn away
from violence and find another way? This really is the question upon which everything else
will turn – how many bodies are too many? You know it is impossible to kill our way to a
resolution, if for no other reason than every death and injury creates even more people
willing to fight and die to remove us from their land.
We’ve been through this before, Mr. President, and I don’t mean that in a rhetorical way.
We have indeed been through this all before – unlike most of the people in our country or in
your administration. We have seen and heard and smelled and felt what “death from above”
actually means, not in a briefing report but right there in our hands and before our eyes.
We’ve seen the look in the eyes of the people we occupied. We felt their anger and their
humiliation. We remember these things well, Mr. President, because they will not go away
no matter how many years pass.
Veterans For Peace will continue to speak out against such crimes. We will do so along
with the growing numbers of people who are telling you that by going down this road you
are making a tragic mistake. We no longer face the old question of “guns or butter?” Now
the question is: will we completely destroy our economy with all that means, or will we step
back from the brink and do what our humanity demands of us before the slide into moral
and economic ruin is irreversible?
At some point, Mr. President, you will decide to turn away from violence, to end these
occupations. As we wrote before, we stand ready to assist you in any effort to find another way.
Until then you will find us in the streets.

Most Sincerely,
Mike Ferner
National President
Veterans For Peace


cc: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Steny H. Hoyer, Majority Leader of the House
John Boehner, Republican Leader of the House
James E. Clyburn, House Majority Whip
Eric Cantor, Republican Whip
John B. Larson, Chairman of the Democratic Caucus
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., U.S. Vice President
Robert C. Byrd, Senate President Pro Tempore
Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the Senate
Richard Durbin, Assistant Majority Leader of the Senate
Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader of the Senate
Jon Kyl, Assistant Minority Leader of the Senate