Say It Ain't So, Joe.

 

Bomblets.   Photo: Sky News 

Dear Joe ---- 

Sorry I haven't replied to your fund-raising letters.  It's true, I gave to your campaign in 2020.  But I'm afraid I can't do it again, as long as you are "defending your decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine."  As you know, these bombs will kill and maim both soldiers and and civilians, including little children -- Ukrainian children.  And they will keep killing for years after they explode and scatter "tiny, deadly bomblets" across the countryside.  

You and I are old enough to remember Vietnam, where we killed and maimed children, and destroyed villages in order to save them.  The real enemy wasn't the Vietnamese, it was the Russians and the Chinese.  We fought them all over the world -- Korea, Africa, South America, South Asia -- we set brothers against brothers, sisters and against sisters, cousins against cousins.  And between us we killed and mained enough children to give us a horror show in Hell that will last a thousand years.  

We have no more business fighting the Russians in Ukraine than we did in Vietnam.  Neither place has any strategic value to the United States.  If you think killing and maiming little children in Ukraine will help us gain influence and power in the world, you haven't learned a thing.  

Say it ain't so, Joe. 

Take a walk around the White House and look at the portraits of your predecessors.  Imagine them speaking:   George Washington on the dangers of "entangling alliances."  John Quincy Adams on not going abroad seeking "monsters to destroy."  General Eisenhower on the dangers of the "military-industrial complex."  Right now the military-industrial complex is in love with you. You're pouring billions of dollars into their bins, to pour killer weapons into Ukraine.  You say these cluster bombs are "just a transition" until the production of artillery shells can be ramped up.  

Where's the off-ramp, the "exit strategy?"  Do you really want another endless war?   

Look at Lyndon Johnson, at that sad, wrecked face -- Remember "Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"  He thought he couldn't be re-elected unless he stuck it out in Vietnam.  But an unwinnable war makes an unwinnable election.  And the older a war gets, the uglier it looks. 

Remember Colin Powell?  He never ran for president but he could  run a war.  The Powell Doctrine said you don't get into a war unless you can win, and win quickly.  The last thing you want is a "fair fight."  Did you see "All Quiet on the Western Front?"  That's Ukraine today.  They're running out of ammunition,  And body bags.     

Finally, look at your friend Barack Obama.  I remember him saying in that mild voice, that he preferred "peaceful solutions." Your letter says you might call me up if I send money.  Do yourself a favor and call Barack instead.  Ask him what a "peaceful solution" would look like, and who might be able to craft it.  If it's one of our rivals, so be it.  Our credibility as an "honest broker" is shot.  

Meanwhile, keep the cluster bombs here.  Change your mind, drag your feet.  Let the Ukrainians face reality. If they're running out of ammunition, take it as an opportunity--- not to recycle atrocious weapons, but to save the children.  And maybe save yourself. 

Your Friend and fellow Democrat, 

Tom Phillips