PRESIDENT OBAMA, DO NOT BE DETERRED:

There has been two pieces of social legislation that I would have been proud to have voted for. Those two are Social Security (FDR) and Medicare (LBJ). Without both of them I probably could not have retired or been able to enjoy my remaining years.

Medicare's benefits have probably kept me from out of bankruptcy court. If we live long enough, parts of our bodies wear out and must be replaced, and the costs of these inevitable visits to the parts department are not cheap.

These two programs, and I don't exaggerate, make life for the elderly worth continuing. The Health Care program (BHO) will be, when passed and implemented, the third and hardest fought for addition to the American Promise, a proud achievement that will declare to the rest of the world that for all our bickering and name calling, good things can be achieved.

How do we pay for the good intentions of our legislators? President Obama promised through the long election process to bring our military men and women home and end our direct involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Up to now it is an unkept promise, but if it was kept, the amount of money used to fund the military machine could be used for the home economy, perhaps the infrastructure, at the same time creating many jobs in the process.

The military industrial complex that President Eisenhower knew about first hand and warned us against knew that military hardware providers are not easily satisfied and must be continually fed by blood, sacrifice, and money. It is time for that to end.

There will come again a time when America will have to face others on the battlefield, but for now, enough is enough. It has taken us seven years to get to where we are now in Iraq. Afghanistan could match that. After that there is Iran, a nuclear power in case you forget, and then North Korea, a nuclear power. When and where does it end. If we remain in our present stance and take on all comers we most certainly will have to re-install the draft because as valiant as our volunteer army is, there are not enough for all the battlefields we may have to march into. Our volunteers need everything we can give them, and rest is one of the things they need.

President Obama knows that for each reason he feels is right for bringing home the troops, another special interest group will counter with all the resources they can muster, to remain and use all the military hardware they can sell the defense department. For each of the reasons to save the lives of our young military people, the CIA, the NSA, and other agencies will find never ending reasons to prevail.

The president will have to be strong to withstand these elements that wish to continue wars to feed their personal coffers, but he must. He does not want to follow John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and then Lyndon Johnson who were sucked into the tragic game of just a few more troops and everything will be fine until those few troops ended up being hundreds of thousands and a dispirited country learning the lesson that we cannot and should not become the policemen of the world.

Mr. President, do not emulate President Johnson and pass a landmark social program (medicare)and then lose your presidency by being pulled deeper and deeper into an unpopular war.