A letter to the President of the United States of America

Dear Mr. President,

I wanted to write this letter to Prime Minister in India, the honorable Mr. Manmohan Singh but I was worried if he would doze off before finishing it. A thought came to my mind of writing to his party President the honorable Sonia Gandhi but I was sure she would tear it and give me a lecture on the reason why we need to elect her party for a second term to bring a change. And then I thought of talking to the young Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi but he is somewhere is some rural part of India trying to convince uneducated villagers vote for him. So I am left with no option than to write to you.

I was glued on the television when you companied for the Presidential elections. There was a deep feeling I had that you would win, one reason was because of your color, people in America wanted to prove to themselves and to the world that they believe in equality and slavery is America’s past – no distinction  of cast, color or religion.

I believe you running for President must have been watched around the world with huge anticipation, most people thought that if you would win, there would be a real change to America’s image. After that Cow Boy from Texas and his cronies’ ruined it by the Iraq war. This is what Bush said before the invasion.

"The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."

He talked about mass murder; Research Business Survey estimated 1,033,000 "deaths as a result of the conflict", to April 2009 and counting. I wonder how much your decisions on the war caused the body counts to increase.

You have been awarded the Nobel Prize in the first 8½ months in office. It seems highly unlikely it was based on the work. The only conclusion that I came up with is maybe they gave it to you based on the arc of the civil rights movement, and the struggle for racial equality you represent black people of America.

I am sure there were people who would say you should have not accepted something you didn’t work hard for, and I would agree with them. I know you did make a mention of it but you and I know it was scripted to keep the critics quite. My overall impression of your speech seemed that it was rubbish and you should kick that team out who spend sleepless nights writing it for you.

However, how does it make a difference to a common man like me, your acceptance or denial of the award?

For me all I worry is how to get my work place, struggling to get inside a crowded train, to work hard, to pay the mortgage, save money for my wedding, and make some investments for my future. I know this does not concern you, how could it, I am an Indian and you are the President of the United States.

You cannot help me of my misery to stay alive but you can help people I think you can and they are the people of Iran.

I sometimes find it hard to understand while the States sits on a mountain of Nuclear bombs and you are now telling others you cannot acquire it, even though they are reputably trying to use it for civilian use.

Let us assume Iran is trying to acquire a bomb, don’t they have a right to it? I read your speech when you got the noble prize. Even though you got the Noble peace prize you justified the use of war and military actions. In the past America has been in numerous wars

French and Indian War (1754-1763) colonial militias

American Revolution (1775-1783)

War of 1812 (1812-1814)

Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

US Civil War (1861-1865)

Spanish-American War (1898)

World War 1 (1914-1918) entered 1917

World War 2 (1939-1945) entered 1941

Korean War (1950-1953*) (*not over, but fighting ceased)

Vietnam War (1964-1975) advisers sent beginning 1955

Gulf War (1991)

War in Afghanistan (2001-present) supported tribal war against Taliban

Iraq War (2003-present) Iraq regime overthrown 2003

I can’t find more than 2 wars fought by the Iranians, to be honest I don’t care what happens to the Government of Iran, what worries me is your sanctions on the Iranians people. Deriving people of a decent lively hood by ganging with other nations, it’s what some people would call an economic war. You already declared war on them you just didn’t bomb them yet.

According to an Iranian journalist, the effects of sanctions in Iran include expensive basic goods and an aging and increasingly unsafe aircraft fleet. "According to reports from Iranian news agencies, 17 planes have crashed over the past 25 years, killing approximately 1,500 people.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that sanctions are aimed at strangling the economy of Iran and would create much discontent toward Western nations, and potentially provoke a negative recourse.

I believe American people never went to war, their leaders made them do it and now, it’s become very difficult or dangerous for many Americans to travel freely without the US given the travel advisories.

The act of provocations to make another person react in an aggressive manner is as much responsible as the aggressor. My greatest fear is what if Leaders really don’t care of what happens to civilians when a war is waged. When that happens a lot of innocent people die, a lot of resentment is sown in their hearts, anger is fed and revenge is what they seek.

You should let go of the sanctions and stop bullying people who can’t defend themselves from your warships and B52 bombers.

The total world budget spent on defense is $1630 bn as on 2011 and that just includes 15 countries . Imagine if we took all the countries in the world and clubbed them together it would cross $2000 bn.

Now let’s say for an instance all the countries in the world for just a year stop spending money was killing machines and spend that on development and cutting down loans.

Do you think $2000 bn would be enough???

You got the power to do that, you got that power to bring that change all I have is the ability to write to you. Sometimes when I watch you on television I feel you are lost and don’t really know what you are doing. It seems you just following what your predecessors were doing just to show your country that you are doing something.

What you need to do is sit in a quiet place over looking your garden sipping some warm coffee and trying to imagine how you can bring change, that you promised to do so. Or else I am going to write more letters to you…

Thank you Mr. President

Regards

A Common Indian