Dear Mr. Bush,
I hear that you are going to Viet Nam now. As a veteran of that war, having served two tours of duty "in country," I, like former Texas Lt. Governor Ben Barnes, have some advice for you.
First, you won't be needing a gun now; we surrendered the country over to the commies on May 1st, 1975. You may recall that as Communist tanks rolled into Saigon over the bodies of Vietnamese Special Forces and Airborne troops, President Ford was playing golf here at home with some of his Democrat buddies. A Republican, like yourself, he talked a lot about "peace with honour" and "staying the course,” and other such popcorn-puffed potpourri tossed out at the American public. In the end, President Ford's golf balls meant more to him than the death of fifty-eight thousand American...
Politics
Dear President Bush,
We are approaching the eve of Passover, the Holiday of Freedom for the Jewish People. I am writing to ask you to release my husband, Jonathan Pollard. Jonathan is competing his 20th year of a life sentence in an American prison for his activities on behalf of Israel.
At a mass demonstration attended by thousands in Israel today, Israeli Cabinet Minister Natan Sharansky, with whom you are personally acquainted, indicated that he regards Jonathan as a political prisoner. Media reports quote Minister Sharansky addressing the crowd by telephone, stating: "Jonathan Pollard is a Prisoner of Zion. We must do our utmost to secure his release!"
Mr. President, no doubt you are aware that my husband's case is unique. Among other things:
Jonathan is in his 20th year...
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Dear President Bush and Senator Kerry:
As a religious leader and as a citizen with great regard for this country, I make this plea on the eve of your first presidential debate.
It is time for the tone and the content of your campaigns to change. The world is watching this election closely. The challenges facing this country and the magnitude of the issues confronting the world are too grave and complex for negativity.
We know the reality of fear. Please do not appeal to our fears. As people of faith, we claim the biblical promise, “Do not be afraid.” We need a vision of our shared future with all of God’s creation.
Please stop looking back 30 years and challenging each other's military service. We need you to provide us with a vision for the next 30 years. What will the world...
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President Bush,
It has become extremely difficult to give you the benefit of the doubt on Lebanon, for you have left no doubt in our minds. We are now certain — like many of us have always been — that your foreign policy is completely biased towards Israel, and you have made no effort to hide this fact. Just out of curiosity: are they also drafted in Tel Aviv?
It is your choice, Mr Bush, to support Israel, just like it is our — the entire Arab and Muslim world’s — choice to support Lebanon. You insist that Israel has the right to defend itself. Defending oneself, I believe, is a universal right, not exclusive to Israel.
"The first Qana massacre did not quench the Israeli thirst for blood," it is said, graphically describing yet another Israeli crime against the innocents of Lebanon...
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Dear Prime Minister,
I have read your correspondence with Sir John Chilcot about the failure to agree the publication of documents requested by the members of the Iraq Inquiry. I am more than a little puzzled by the references to 'Maxwellisation'. Surely there can be no comparison with the Inquiry involving the late Robert Maxwell, apart from technical questions, of how people mentioned in the draft Report have the right to make representations to the Inquiry?
The Iraq Inquiry involves a decision to declare war and from the moment it was established it was clear it would involve examination of international discussions between British Prime Ministers and US Presidents. If there is a precedent it is the inquiry held during the First World War to examine the Dardanelles.
Sir Jeremy...
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Dear Senator McCain,
I am the woman who spoke out in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the status of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay on February 5th. I’m sure you heard my words, “Give them the rights of prisoners of war!” before I was arrested.
I attended the hearing in an orange jump suit to silently protest the very existence of Guantanamo prison, and I expected to hear a reasonably rational discussion of the pris-on and its future. I planned to listen respectfully, holding my sign reading “I died waiting for justice: Adnan Latif, Died September 8, 2012,” to remind the Senators and admin-istration officials that Adnan Latif either committed suicide or was killed at Guantanamo after ten years of torture and unjust detention, and six years after being cleared for re-...
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Dear President Bush and Vice President Cheney:
We express our grave concerns about the fact that you have approved a visit by Nguyen minh Triet to the White House, probably on June 22, 2007.
As a leader of the USA and also of the free world, you have several reasons to do so. Some people say that security for the region and for the world is one. Hanoi?s cooperation with the US in fighting the terror is another. And still, others explain that interest of business circles is a motive for you to make such decision.
This is a move you make to get close to the communist country. Briefly, for any or all reasons cited, you are the one who wants to raise the relationship between the USA and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) up to a higher level . It is clear that you expect that...
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Dear Mr. President-Elect:
Ever since your victory was secured, you have insisted that you will be the president of all of us, whether or not we share your views on a host of issues. In your hands, particularly in your future appointments of Supreme Court Justices, rests the future of the freedoms that have become synonymous with the last half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first.
Throughout the just-concluded campaign you expressed deep religious convictions. You have every right to derive personal sustenance from these beliefs. However, as our new leader, you have assumed an awesome responsibility that requires you to take as much care in protecting those of us who may hold philosophical views divergent from your own, as you will exercise in looking after...
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Dear President Bush
First, we would like to introduce ourselves to you. We are 75 and 65 years old and both of us are psychotherapists, writers, and consciousness teachers. We have over 90 years of combined experience working with people in many different settings and in many nations around the world. We have written five books together and one each separately. These have been translated into seven languages. We have five children, three grandchildren, and a number of cats. We tell you all this simply to establish the fact that we are thoughtful, professional, competent people who have lived full lives and have experienced a great deal in this world -- both separately and as partners.
We are not usually alarmists, but as professionals who have worked with people all our lives, we...
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Dear Mr. President:
I am glad to see that you fired some U.S. attorneys. But you missed one: U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who prosecuted border guards Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean instead of a professional drug smuggler, and who prosecuted Texas Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez instead of a professional people-smuggler.
Yes, you have the presidential prerogative to hire and fire U.S. attorneys for any reason or for no reason. Any prosecutor has large discretion in whether to bring a case to trial or not, and the public has the right to know why he made that decision.
So much has come out since the Ramos and Compean trial that proves the decision to criminally prosecute them was a gross miscarriage of justice. Their alleged violation, if true, deserved, at most, an...
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