Saturday, November 1, 2008

dear mr. we need mccain

Response – to Dear Mr. Obama video on Youtube, posted by mr. we need mccain.

Dear Mr. we need McCain, this is a personal message for you


Forgive me when I say this, but the US soldiers in Iraq did not die defending the freedom of Americans or of Iraqis. They died because at a certain time, a number of US politicians and lobbyists and power-players decided that the US needed a monopoly on the oil reserves of the Middle East. Obama is not disrespecting the soldiers and their families when he says the war was a mistake. It seems clear he believes, like me, that you should be giving those in power a slap in the face for sending brave and patriotic men like you to die for the sake of America’s grip over the world economy when the fuel crisis hits.

Dear Mr. we need McCain, I am an Indian, living in India, I’m a teenager, and I have no stake in who wins the US presidential election. yes, Obama's eloquence is impressive, and yes, McCain’s experience is vast, but here in India we are very used to political leaders who promise change and experience, too, and most of them don't live up to it in any case. From an objective outsider's point of view, then, it sounds like you're mad at a presidential candidate because he states that sending the cream of America’s youth to a destructive, pointless and frankly manipulative war was a mistake. Men like you are surely needed in your own country, to work, to raise families? and you defend a man like McCain, who would send you to war again, who would find new, resource-rich, impoverished countries whose people suddenly need to be 'liberated' in the name of 'democracy', where you, not you personally perhaps, but your friends in the army, would go to sacrifice themselves? I’m sorry; perhaps it's because I don't approve of war in the first place that I don't understand the republican compulsion to 'fix' the world's problems with guns and ammo.

And personally, I find it offensive that you believe that the USA is responsible for freeing the world. We’re fine, thank you! Apart from a limited few, no Iraqi will ever say that things are better post the US troops. Previously, they thought US citizens were just un-Islamic, capitalist westerners with too much money for their own good. Now they think that the USA wants to wipe out Islam, that all American soldiers are brute infidels and that white people are essentially a poisonous race, in the same way that many Americans believe Iraqis are unchristian, fanatic, terror-mongering, uncivilized people. This is the backlash of war on human nature.

Obama has the potential to change that, because he stands for tolerance. McCain does not. That is my considered stand. I had not taken sides previously, but your well-prepared speech has forced me to rethink that. I feel for your plight, I do. that was a moving appeal, but I do not believe that Obama would for one second call your sacrifice, your pain, the adjustments you must have had to make, your patriotism, any of that, a mistake. No-one with a minimum of intelligence would call your loss a mistake. You did it because you believed in your government. But I believe your government made a mistake when it played you for a fool, sending you to fight for oil and assets and power in the name of democracy.

I hope you will reconsider your stand. If you do not, that is your right, and I respect that. But while all of you over in the USA are still fighting it out, I just thought I’d let you know something. Here in India, people who respect human rights, tolerance, and peace and want a stable economy are hoping to see president Obama meet with Manmohan Singh in January. only those who are hoping for outsourced jobs, more US dollars pouring into our economy, the kind of people who couldn't care less about the rights and wrongs of politics, are supporting McCain.

Please, do take the time to reply. I respect you immensely and I would be honored to know your response to my opinion.

With love, from India

A friend.

p.s. - just think for a second, Mr. we need McCain, whether, irrespective of your own needs, the world needs Obama more.

1 comment:

I am said...

A very good analysis of the US election and how its influence on us..