Dear Mr. President,
I am speaking for myself and the not entirely uninformed belief that I speak for some of our readership. We are mostly veterans and active duty military. We are not the majority of either group but we are a significant number, in the hundreds of thousands, and are unique in one way. We are your supporters. We worked in support of your election, when you were threatened, we defended you. This is easy to check, simple as getting a record of our publication, our readership numbers or even my own service record book. I am a combat veteran from the Vietnam War.
We are not ready to abandon you but we are very concerned and I believe it is time you listened to voices other than those that have managed to isolate you from what we see as “reality.”
Our most current concern is with what appears to be a growing pattern of abuse of American rights by Federal law enforcement authorities in recent days. It is our belief that agent provocateurs have, at the direction of our complex and burdensome state security apparatus, infiltrated groups trying to end the war in Afghanistan, groups asking for an honest investigation of 9/11 and, perhaps even more seriously, groups challenging financial policies that are undermining the future of the United States.
We have seen no indication whatsoever that these groups are in any way terrorist or subversive, far from it. These people voted for you, worked for your election, donated money to your campaign and believed your promises. We also suspect that it isn’t just these groups, constituting what is typically referred to as the “progressive left,” that are being targeted but also conservative and libertarian groups as well, including the Tea Party.
If there is a domestic threat, some group likely to represent a threat to the United States, I don’t see it coming from here. I am strongly suspicious that those around you who are warning you of such things are hiding a personal agenda inconsistent with the values you have often spoken of.
However, we are not saying there isn’t a threat out there. You don’t have to look very far beneath the rhetoric of the television and radio pundits with their powerful backing, many directly tied to the financial criminals who are so powerful they represent a “clear and present danger” to the security of the country, to see where the violence will come from.
We do expect violence, perhaps even terrorist attacks, but not planned by peace activists in a church basement in Ann Arbor or a cave in Waziristan. Look for those who profit most from violence, terrorism, war and instability.
Any genuinely qualified National Security Adviser will always factor this into your briefings.
We have our fears. We fear some, perhaps many within our military leadership have become addicted to war and have come to serve a private agenda counter to American values. We believe some in our intelligence organisations are with them. If there is a threat to the United States, look there.
While the FBI is searching homes across the country for “subversive” material, $65 billion dollars a year, the profits from the heroin trade in Afghanistan, is buying power, perhaps funding world terrorism and even undermining our own political system. Over $1.2 billion will be spent on the upcoming elections.
Due to changes in campaign funding laws based on the recent decision in the US Supreme Court, it will be impossible to track any of that money to its real source. The bales of cash leaving Kandahar and the negotiable instruments, some worth hundreds of millions, that are now floating around the world, go somewhere. Where better than to buy influence and control here, in the United States? Perhaps the FBI could look into this.
America is facing threats, threats that may push the nation over the edge. We are all aware of it. We are facing a crisis, grinding poverty amid increasing wealth in the hands of a very few.
Those few, those wealthy few, hardly Americans but rather a government of their own making, internationalists, buying influence, deregulation, advocating war, profiting from terrorism, are hardly invisible. You can see their trail in the $13.5 trillion dollar national debt. You can see their trail in the figures on your desk every day, poverty, unemployment, balance of trade.
We know you see this. We also know you may be powerless to oppose these massive evils, even as President.
What we do ask is that you stand by us as we stood by you.
Sincerely,
Gordon Duff
Marine Vietnam war veteran
and Senior Editor, Veterans Today,
a journal of military veterans and foreign affairs
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