Obama

Dear President Obama,

Welcome to the idealistic crossroads. It's a place many liberal AND conservatives find themselves once they have won the battle of ideas, and gotten elected. Sometimes, those things that seemed to morally repugnant to you while campaigning ... does not seem so bad. Take the most recent speech of the president's. Peel back the layers of ideological babble, and find ... nothing has changed. The Bay is still open, and you still have no where to store it's prisoners. It must have been such a disappointment when Congress rejected your idea of closing Gitmo and transferring the prisoners of war ... err ... men stuck there to American soil. You find that when it comes time to act, liberal principles quickly find themselves lacking. I know that it is much easier for me to sit here on my laptop and theorize X and Y, and pontificate about how I believe conservatism is the answer to our problems. The truth of the matter is, Mr. President, is that you know as much as I that sometimes we must do things that we find repugnant in order to protect the common good. I am not advocating this as the first response ... indeed, anyone who quickly steps in that directly should be seen for the monster that they are. But sometimes, when a principled people are confronted by men so thoroughly motivated by hate that all reason has deserted them, a more direct response is called for. I agree that torture is monstrous, and has no place in US policy. But sitting someone in a cell, while being tortuous, is far and above what they would do in opposite circumstances.

Truly, Mr. President, we are men of action. Lies do not become us. I understand that you must demean ex-President Bush for his actions in order to explain yours, and sometimes rightfully so ... but in this case I feel you should own your own actions. You now see why Gitmo was, and still is, an important instrument in our fight against al Qaeda. This talk of closing an effective strategy only emboldens our enemies. The only places that will take the men there are countries that we know cannot handle, willfully or otherwise, the men taken under their care.

**a rough draft, but given that his speech was today, I feel I should try and get it out ASAP. I will return to try and proofread later**