It is Time for Us to Leave Both Afghanistan and Iraq

By
Michael T. McPhearson
– October 7, 2009Posted in: Politics, Resistance

VFP members protest in front of White House

Facebook White House Wall Note

President Obama,

I voted for you with great joy. I had confidence early in the race that you would win. I am happy that you did because I am excited to see our country elect a person who looks like me to the White House. I know that it gives many Black youth a new height of achievement to endeavor to reach. Just last Sunday I saw a Black toddler with a bib stating “A Future US President.” No longer is this a wishful or historic dream, but an illustrated possibility by your election. You have opened the door for many other people including women. I must admit at 45 yrs old, your story has inspired me. :-)

However, I also cried before you were elected knowing that no one can be President of the United States or lead most any country and not have blood on their hands. I knew that many of the same policies that crush people under the heal of US dominance would continue. Yet I hoped and prayed that we could make some difference in changing the course of our nation towards more just and peaceful policies under your Administration.

Today you have an opportunity for you to continue in the tradition of a giant who made it possible for you to be President. Dr. King would not have supported this war. I am sure you know this. I am sure he would have supported your election, while also standing against U.S. military dominance and aggression. I would be surprised if you have not read his Beyond Vietnam speech, so I will go no further. I simply ask you to do what needs to be done, not only to save U.S. lives, but to move this country from being the greatest purveyor of violence in the world to the greatest example of peace and justice. It is time for us to leave both Afghanistan and Iraq. War/military solutions will not make us safer. Resources are needed to uplift people, not to destroy them.

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About Michael T. McPhearson

Michael T. McPhearson, a native of Fayetteville North Carolina was a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Desert Shield /Desert Storm, also known as Gulf War I. Michael joined the Army Reserve 1981 as an enlisted soldier at the age of 17 and attended basic training the summer between his junior and senior high school years. He is a ROTC graduate of Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. His military career includes 6 years of reserve service and 5 years active duty service. He separated from active duty in 1992 as a Captain. Now living in Newark, New Jersey, Michael is currently the National Coordinator for United for Peace and Justice. He is a former Executive Director of Veterans For Peace. His volunteer social and economic justice activist work includes membership in Veterans For Peace, the Newark based People's Organization for Progress, Military Families Speak Out, the American Civil Liberties Union and the former coordinating committee member for the Bring Them Home Now campaign against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Secretary of the Saint Louis Branch of the NAACP. Michael is the publisher of the McPhearsonReport.com. Michael's son joined the Army in January 2004 and served one tour in Iraq. He separated from the military in 2007. In December of 2003 Michael returned to Iraq as part of a peace delegation to examine the state of the occupation firsthand. He has also traveled widely within the United States and to Istanbul Turkey and Bologna Italy as a speaker on the U.S. peace movement and world peace.