Mr. President,
I take great pride in having you as my Commander in Chief. I am writing to express my concern as soldier in the US Army. I certainly don’t speak for my employer but as a citizen serving.
I was a freelance writer/producer/director of content across media platforms based out of Brooklyn, NY before enlisting in the Army at the age of 41 in Oct 2007. I joined to seek out new stories to inform my work as an artist, ride out the recession, pay down some massive student loans and hopefully get a better sense of our foreign policy in effect. I am currently serving as a 46 Romeo (46R) b.k.a “broadcast journalist” with the 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. The unit I am with is a good one. We are tentatively scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan in September or at the latest January 2010.
What is the scope of our mission in Afghanistan? I feel that other nations are watching us go it alone and I am bothered by Pakistan’s relationship with the Taliban. I feel that Pakistan is playing both sides of the fence with us –taking our money while appeasing the Taliban. As it relates to Afghanistan, I am troubled that the Afghani government we are supporting is not popular amongst the Afghani people. President Karzai’s recent passage of laws restricting the rights of women in order to please radical clerics for votes makes the term *Operation Enduring Freedom* an oxymoron.
Granted, we are told that we are in Afghanistan to ensure that the Taliban won’t have sanctuary to attack us but how do we measure progress after eight years? Will we be there as long as it takes? I feel that the Taliban agenda is ideology driven by their interpretation of Islam. You can’t eradicate an ideology that is being passed down from one generation to the next. Certainly, I know we just can’t get up and leave but I am worried that this war does not take into account the history that others (mainly the Soviets) have shown us. Afghanistan is not a country that can be tamed nor controlled. As we commit more US troops to the fight, I am afraid that this war will become more of a quagmire and draw comparisons to Vietnam.
Sustainment- are we honestly prepared to go the distance and at what cost? I pray daily that this war does not define your Presidency or legacy. I am just a “joe” – the last to know and it will be my job to tell the soldier’s story. But it is important to know and believe in why we fight. I pray that Providence will provide you and your advisors the guidance and wisdom to take chances on new thoughts and bold directions in finding a workable solution to our presence in Afghanistan.
I wrote this letter inspired by the NYT article about your mailroom and the 10 letters a day you read. Hopefully, you will read this.
Very Respectfully,
SPC Gabriel Tolliver
1-1242 Hamilton Street Box 145
Fort Bragg, NC 28310
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