Obama Could Issue an Executive Order to End the Wars Tomorrow (Yes, It's That Simple)

By Nora Eisenberg, AlterNet. Posted January 29, 2009.

Bush also turned a blind eye to violations of religious freedom in our military. For example, a few troops were proselytizing Iraqis by handing out religious material. In another example, a soldier shot a Quran. In a third example, some officers illegally tried to convert our soldiers or block their free exercise of religion. All of these examples are excessive violations of our Constitution that undermine freedom.

To learn more about this, please contact Mikey Weinstein at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Bush will be as reviled as much as Herbert Hoover … who ordered the violent removal of our peaceful Bonus Army veterans gathered on the National Mall to press Congress and Hoover for deferred compensation for fighting in Europe during World War I.

NE: Looking ahead, what do you hope that the Obama administration will accomplish for veterans, veterans' health and national security? What do you find most encouraging in his statements and actions? I know you're concerned about his statements about widening the war in Afghanistan. Why?

PS: Veterans for Common Sense issued a detailed report, "Our VCS Vision for a Vibrant VA in 2009."

We are currently reviewing his policy statements on Afghanistan. While efforts in 2001 appear reasonable to defeat al-Qaida in Afghanistan, the war has turned into a bloody occupation. First, we need an accurate, complete and consistent assessment of facts on the ground, a process made nearly impossible by the propaganda efforts of the former administration.

We are troubled that military efforts in Afghanistan appear fleeting and that the Taliban controls major sections of the country, even going so far as to cut off the vital main supply line from Pakistan going through the Kybher Pass. Corruption and drug crops appear to be flourishing even as more U.S. troops flood into Afghanistan.

We will remain engaged on this issue because the combination of deployments to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has seriously undermined the ability of our military to protect the United States, which should be their primary function.

In the interim, we are exceptionally pleased to learn President Obama ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp, ordered an end to torture and is already evaluating how to bring our troops home from Iraq.

NE: Michelle Obama has expressed special interest in veterans issues. Have you had contact with her? What do you expect that she will be able to accomplish for veterans and their families?

PS: VCS is very pleased at the strong interest shown by Michelle Obama in our service members, military families, veterans and veterans' families. VCS has not had contact with her. We hope she will continue meeting with these groups as our best advocate inside the White House who definitely has the ear of our new president.

We are impressed with the broad plan for our veterans that President Obama has outlined at his new White House Web site.

See more stories tagged with: iraq, vietnam, 9/11, torture, afghanistan, robert gates, barack obama, blackwater, mercenaries, george w. bush, military contractors, ptsd, walter reed, department of defense, depleted uranium, gulf war, jeremy scahill, veterans affairs, gulf war syndrome, paul sullivan, veterans for common sense, bonus army, post-traumatic stress dis, penatgon, phil sheldon

Nora Eisenberg is the author of the novels The War at Home, a Washington Post Rave of the Year 2002, and Just the Way You Want Me, awarded the 2004 Gold Prize for Fiction from ForeWord Magazine, the weekly of independent publishing. Her new novel, issued this month by Curbstone Press, is about troops returning home from the 1991 Gulf War, and the unexpected price of war for young victors and their families.

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