Obama...we are waiting

Dear Mr. President:

When you were running for the presidency, you promised you would bring the troops home...and so, I voted for you. I voted for you because I believe we must loosen the grip the military industrial complex has on our country, and our faltering economy. I voted for you because I believe our massive debt is directly the result of our foreign committments in other lands. We have become invested in the problems of foreign nations to such extent that we cannot take care of our own.

Presently we have troops in 163 other countries and more than 550,000 of our armed forces are involved. We have 30,000 men and women in South Korea at a staggering cost. We have squandered $1.3 trillion in Iraq, of which much can be attributed to fraud and corruption under the Bush administration. We were warned years ago by President Dwight Eisenhower to beware of the military industrial complex, but nobody listened.  Now we are caught up in a never-ending cycle of waste. together with our allies we produce more than 25 percent of the world's weapons, including enough nuclear power to fry this planet.

Now we are engaged in a war chosen by our enemy, fighting on a barren land with little hope of achieving our objectives.  When you were first elected president, I waited for you to take decisive action in bringing our men and women out of Afghanistan, but you have not. Instead, you listen to the military leaders who advise they need another 40,000 troops to combat the insurgents.  Of course, the military want more troops, more weapons, more opportunity for advancement in their chosen careers. I understand where their interests are. 

But remember you were elected by a majority of the people who are still behind you, waiting for you to fulfill the promises you made.  Obama, we are waiting.