Dear Mr. President,

When the 2000 primaries rolled around, I voted for you only because I didn’t trust Senator McCain and I liked your energy. By the time November appeared, I was excited about the tax cut, the education initiatives, the possibility of school vouchers, and everything else that came with you. When you chose your cabinet, it was magic. I thought you had a dream team: it was full of experience, diversity, and connections. At that time, I knew for sure that America was in for a great eight years.

When September 11, 2001 occurred, I could not think of a time in my history when I had been more proud of anyone as I was proud of you. I went to sleep that night knowing who my president was, and who his cabinet was, and I slept soundly. Though I was laid off in October of that year, I did not panic or sell out my retirement account; I knew that my president would right this ship.

I could not wait for the United States to invade Iraq. I left the Marine Corps reserve in 2000, but I considered re-enlisting to support this war. I always thought President Clinton would send us to Iraq (as you may know, he almost did several times) and I was ready. If I hadn’t had new family responsibilities, I absolutely would have re-enlisted. It was high-time that we chase down this Osama bin-Laden in Afghanistan, and end the Taliban’s brutal regime. It was past time for Saddam, Uday, and Qusay to be held accountable for a long list of atrocities. Moreover, it was an ideal time for more people in the Middle East to begin to experience some stability and freedom, and the opportunities that accompany them.

In 2004, I defended you. I put a sign for you in my yard, and replaced it when a sophomoric democrat stole it. I argued with the people around me that you rivaled Presidents Reagan and Kennedy in many ways. Though your lack of speaking ability was notorious, you were able to convey your message and instill national faith and pride almost as well as both of those presidents. Your actions often spoke louder than your words. When you flew into Iraq to visit the troops over Thanksgiving, I grinned from ear to ear with pride. That was a great move, and it sent a message to the entire planet: the President is strong, fearless, supportive, in control, and loved by his military.

In addition, you sometimes exceeded Reagan and Kennedy’s ability to bring the nation together on task, especially on the tax cuts and the initial invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. After the 2004 election, when you said you had political capital to spend, I thought you were right. You had a clear mandate from the American people to keep on the path that you were blazing. I was especially supportive of your strategy to give the democrats all the rope they wanted to hang themselves with.

Unfortunately, you have been snagged several times in that rope as you let it out. For instance, what were you thinking when you nominated Harriet Meiers to the Supreme Court? I absolutely agree that she has achieved much in her career, and I am sure you could see values in her that we, at our distance, could not. However, she did not bear the credentials of a judge on the highest court in the land. Not only did you make a poor choice, you did a terrible job defending the decision. If I was Ms. Meiers, I would have found that humiliating, and I am not sure I would have forgiven you so easily.

You know I cannot forget the Dubai port deal either. You and I both know that the UAE is an important ally, and a fairly liberal country as far as Arab nations go. However, you should have known that America is not ready to trust its ports to an Arab nation or company. What a bad idea. Don’t you have that voice in your head that warns you about these things? If someone had come to me and suggested we hired an Arab country to manage our ports, the first thing I would have thought is “That will never fly in the media, in the leftist labor camp, nor among the rabid right-wingers who believe all Arabs are terrorists. This is not a battle worth fighting.”

But I am not writing you to nit-pick. We’d be here all day. And if we were to nit-pick your presidency compared to some others (Carter, Truman), you would do all right over the long-haul. The facts I have mentioned so far merely caused me to re-think my support of you. They allowed me to remove the blinders which shielded my true thoughts in Iraq. Now I can see the future, and read the history books, and agree with their summation of your presidency: you squandered your political capital, you squandered the fantastic allies you began with, and you squandered the lives of thousands of Americans who did not need to die.

How could you let a man like Colin Powell get away? I have read his books and I have seen his leadership record in the military, in the state department, and as a civilian. The man is smart, strong, calculated, patient, and a born leader. You are lucky he is also loyal, or he could throw you under the bus anytime he wishes. I am sure that he left you because he could not condone the decisions that were being made nor the methods that were used to make them. If Bob Woodward is to be believed, you also probably have a serious problem with prioritizing your advisers. And Powell is just the first on a distinguished list of people, groups, and nations whom you have driven away with your policies and actions.

What angers me the most is how you and your Generals have treated our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and most importantly Marines, as if they are little more than cannon fodder. How could you ask those men and women to drive down the same roads every day in the same unarmored Humvees? What good does this tactic accomplish? Did you not realize the transition from war to insurgency? I get so angry just thinking about you and your family, safe and sound and privileged. Meanwhile, a Marine in Dress Blues pulls into another driveway to tell a mother that the son whom she invested all her time, money and love in would never come home. Or he has to tell a wife that her toddler will have to grow up without a father.

I can hear your reaction now: “But that is war! People die in war, and those brave service members volunteered to fight and die for their country.” As a former enlisted Marine, I agree. If you had sent me to war between 1992-2000, I would have gladly stormed any beach or hill, and paid with my blood if need be. But we don’t always have to die to achieve an objective, especially in 21^st century warfare. Patrolling the streets and waiting for a bullet or bomb is a stupid strategy - that is what Stalin would have done (He’s the Russian guy with the funny moustache who said “We have many people.”)

If I were president, I would have done some thinking, listened to some smart people whose careers were not on the line (independent advisors have good ideas too, you know), and changed my strategy. If I were president, I would have had my Generals changing their strategy when they changed their socks, just as the insurgents do. I would have insisted that we be two steps ahead of the insurgents, not one step behind. I would have rounded up a bunch of Iraqis, conscripted them, and put them on foot patrol. My men and women would have been patrolling the sand leading to Iran and Syria. At the two year mark, I would have thrown a closed-door temper-tantrum and insisted that this had gone on long enough, and someone better get their poop in a group!

I also would have done more to improve our image in the Arab world. Instead of hostility to Al Jazeera, you should have befriended them. You should have made sure that the faces of Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, General Vincent, et al, were on Arab TVs everyday delivering a counter message to the crap from the anti-American lunatics who are so prevalent. (This idea is from Josh Rushing, who left the Marine Corps to work for Al Jazeera. He is another ally you squandered, though to you he was just some Captain. You would do well to skim his book, Mission Al Jazeera.)

The reality is that my president squinted into the camera and talked about how concerned he was, and then he went fishing. My president went to sleep as another unarmored patrol set out, and came back with fewer men than they left with. He laughed it up as another insurgent planted another IED, knowing full well that some Americans would come by soon, he would recognize them when they did, he would be able to kill some and damage their vehicles, and his explosion would be played on billions of TV’s that night.

President Bush, I do not oppose war, and especially not in Iraq. I do not oppose your privilege nor am I jealous of your family’s success. I do not have anything against your informal demeanor, your early bedtime, or your difficulty in speaking publicly. What I do have a problem with is your complete disregard for the American people, and for the wisdom of the common man. We all could have told you how to avoid many of the mistakes you made. Moreover, your cavalier attitude in Iraq, acting like thousands of lives lost is no reason to change our tactic, is criminal.

If we are going to continue to lose lives, let us do it like we did when we took Fallujah: let’s bomb and bulldoze the bad guys in every neighborhood, and force the Iraqi people to decide that they have had enough of Al Qaeda. Let’s level Baghdad and force the survivors to relocate their capital. Let’s send one more message to the impotent government of Iraq: not one more drop of American blood will be spent until you cowards step up and secure your country!

Driving or walking around in 120 degree heat waiting to be shot is a crappy life, Mr. President. Our men and women deserve much better. Take off the leash, turn them loose (pull out the damn imbedded reporters, while you are at it—this is a war, not a spectator sport!), and insist that if we hear a shot from a house or mosque, we flatten the whole block.

Quit screwing around and kick some ass, George! Either that or send the troops home. Quit squandering my tax dollars, not to mention the blood of my generation and the parents of the next generation. Make a decision one way or another, because the insurgents already have.

Sincerely,

Larry Slobodzian, Lifelong Republican, Former Bush Supporter.