Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Probably A Futile Gesture...

...but still....

The President is asking for broad and intentionally vague authorization to wage war against a fairly hard to define group in hard to define ways with impossible to define condition of success or victory. While I appreciate that in a rather stunning act completely out of character for him he is actually including the Legislative Branch in a decision (likely to give himself cover for the future when this latest military escapade inevitable goes badly), the language, terms and goals are so vague was to make this yet another open-ended authorization of military action. I sent the following to each of my Senators, Donnelly and Coats, and my House Representative Marlin Stutzman. I am pretty sure it was a complete waste of time, especially as it pertains to my Republican elected officials but I still felt it was necessary to go on record.
Dear XXXX This week President Obama proposed a formal Authorization for Use of Military Force to the United States Congress, a proposal that if passed would give the President broad authority to wage the latest chapter of our seemingly endless war against various Islamist groups. We are writing to urge you to oppose yet another escalation of military intervention in the Middle East. 
After a century of attempts to manipulate the events of this region it is apparent that in spite of our efforts, enormous spending and tragic loss of life among both the American military and the civilian population of this region, the Middle East is less stable and less friendly to the U.S. and our interests. While our desire to see liberty and freedom in the Middle East may be driven by pure motives, the results have been overwhelmingly negative. The citizens of the United States are less secure and the people of the Middle East are generally more oppressed with each successive intervention. We cannot justify spending untold billions that we do not have, adding to the trillions in debt already inflicted on future generations, and wasting more lives on a fruitless quest to subjugate a people only to create more resentment and hatred. There is no compelling national security threat and no reasonably defined objective in this Authorization and we urge you to reject it in any form.
 Thank you for your time and consideration.
Meaningless form letter reply incoming..... 

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