Our Leaders speech

Yesterday we heard and saw our President deliver a speech putting forth his assessment of what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. I believe the topic was PROGRESS IN OUR WAR AGAINST TERRORISM.

Unlike other candidates, particularly those on the other side of the political aisle, I choose not to "knock" our President. Mine is not the mandate to rate him or his approval rating. While I have my own ideas, I am also patriotic enough to turn the other cheek. However, I do reserve the right to disagree when I feel it is necessary. We all have that right, it is known as DEMOCRACY, freedom of speech.

We have reached that point in this war where political sides must cast aside their differences for the good of the world. Saying there were no weapons of mass destruction or that we were lied to has been repeated so many times, it has worn itself out. The question is how to and what to do NOW!

I am, and always have been, opposed to sending our troops into the middle east. But, they are there. It pains me when I learn of another fatality and God knows the numbers keep mounting, not only with our servicemen and our few Allies, but the thousands of civilians who are killed or maimed daily by fanatics who have no regard for life.

Having said this, pulling our troops out will not only tell the world but particularly our enemies we made a mistake, we cannot win, and, the chaos that will follow will be catastrophic. Our enemies now have us in their sights, their missles are loaded, selecting their targets is all that remains.

It is now time to negotiate. Negotiate with our enemies. Negotiate with those who are trying to perfect nuclear capabilities. Negotiate, negotiate until we achieve a compromise. We must make our enemies understand that religion is no basis for killing. We must make the world understand we admit taking a wrong path and we must apologize to them. We must make our enemies understand that to prolong this war means killing thousands of innocent people, man, women and children. It is senseless.

When elected this will be my mandate, in addition to reducing the horrible deficit, one that has been caused by the war to a large extent.

When election time rolls around, remember our task and remember I am the one dedicated to accomplishing all this.

aL Hoffman
President-to-be