Obama the war hawk

Dear Editor:

“Last combat brigade leaves Iraq,” Obama said last week. The newspapers dutifully printed what he said, but Obama was lying. The truth is that Obama is waging four wars, a fact that he wants to hide from the Democrats, especially before an election.

A couple of days later, Gen. Petraeus, talking about the 56,000 U.S. combat troops that he commands in Iraq, said, “We are not going anywhere.”

In addition to continuing the war on Iraq, Obama has tripled the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Both military and civilian causalities are rapidly increasing.

About six months ago, Obama ordered the invasion of Yemen with what our military is calling a “modest”-sized expeditionary force. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal says that an increase in the number of U.S. troops there is being considered.

Obama is also furiously bombing Pakistan with drones and cruise missiles. A recent news article gave details about one of our drone attacks on a building that had 20 children in it.

Obama’s four-war strategy is militarily unsound and economically disastrous. No nation can wage four wars and win. Neither can we afford to wage four wars. Our national debt is officially at $12 trillion. The actual figure is closer to twice that. Niall Ferguson, the keynote speaker at The Aspen Institute symposium last month, flatly predicted that the American economy will collapse under our debt load within two years.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. Either you go out and put pressure on Obama to stop this madness, or the economy will shortly bring the problem home to you.

George Newell

Aspen