I Stand By Our President

I am a professed Christian. I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe that a person when assaulted should turn the other cheek rather than fight back. However, I must at the same time, confess that I am not a perfect Christian and that if attacked, I would defend myself.

I know that President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan will be a controversial one, but I support his decision.

I was seventeen years old during the Vietnam war, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and served aboard a destroyer in the South Pacific. At the time, I was in favor of that war having been indoctrinated in the domino theory of fighting against Communism and was pretty gung-ho about it, especially when it was reported that three destroyers had been attacked in the Tonkin Golf.

After my tour was up and I began seeing and reading news reports about that war, and found out that the Tonkin Golf incident was a fabrication, I changed my mind about Vietnam.

After 9-11, I was in favor of our country sending troops to Afghanistan in order to eliminate Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and those who master minded the attack against our country. But when President Bush hi-tailed it out of Afghanistan to fight his and Cheney’s personal war in Iraq, I became convinced that the United States should get out of Afghanistan and I had that belief until the President’s speech last night.

The President didn’t come to a quick decision about what to do in Afghanistan, but was controversially deliberate in making that decision.

I believe that he would rather be able to devote his time and our resources in repairing what the right wingers have done to our country, but after a lengthy study of all of our options he has determined that it is in our country’s best interest to finish what we started in Afghanistan.

I listened carefully to his speech last night and I trust his judgement in this case.