I STILL SUPPORT MY PRESIDENT

Maybe I'm just easy, but I'm convinced by President Obama's speech last night that we should give him a chance to salvage something worthwhile from the mess in Afghanistan. I had been one of those signing online petitions protesting the escalation of that conflict. In fact, I've been saying for at least five years that we should have spent at least half of the budget for that war on schools and hospitals. Now we've learned, yet again, that killing people's relatives makes them really mad at us. Those of you old enough will remember "Where have all the flowers gone?" But today is today and it is what it is. The President was as honest and forthcoming as he can be given that no one really knows what will happen in the future. The generals can make plans, but, as anyone who has been in a war zone will tell you, often the best plans are OBE (overcome by events.) Ramping up the civilian component makes the most sense to me. Paying men who say they are Taliban to stop being Taliban anymore sounds like flushing $100 bills down the toilet. Who wouldn't get in line for free money? I'm glad the President reviewed how we got to where we are today and emphasized that the war in Iraq was a mistake. And he did it without naming names or being snide and hateful, unlike that SOB Dick who is still making outrageous comments on TV about our President and getting away with it. His behavior has become almost demonic, and he is being consumed by his own hatred for President Obama. Good riddance. What a contrast when President Obama says he has not given up on the possibility of Americans uniting together again as we did after 9/11. His hope theme continues. He inspires us to pay attention to and live by those values we claim to hold dear. The audience broke into applause when he said that. We should too. I'm glad the President was brave enough to mention that he ordered an end to torturing prisoners and is closing Guantanamo. There will continue to be lots of criticism of the decision to try suspected terrorists in a NYC courtroom. We can balance that rubbish by reminding people that America was strong enough to survive a Civil War and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Surely we'll make it through a few months of public statements by people who hate us. My neighbor's son is a marine in Afghanistan. He was recruited into the ROTC program at Pacific HS because he was just an average student, unhappy at home and wanting attention. He was promised great job training and world travel with a bunch of neat guys just like him. He was supposed to be in the reserves, but that's a death sentence now just like active duty is. I hope he can manage to survive and get home to his new bride. He's finally matured enough to know he was naive to join the Marines at age 17. I don't think teenagers have matured enough intellectually and emotionally to make such life-changing decisions, and, if I could, I'd outlaw recruiting in high schools. If someone over 21 wants to volunteer, that's a different can of worms. I was glad to hear President Obama say that the nation he wants to build is right here in America, not in Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else. Lord knows we need rebuilding. We all have talents to share. We can draw way down into that resevoir of optimism that kept our ancestors trudging along through much worse horrors than what we are dealing with now. The enemies that will kill our spirit are not in terrorist training camps. They are right here on hate radio and TV. If we let their hatred for our President and their grotesque message of defeatism win, we will have lost much more than a war in a faraway country.