Dear editor,

Much has been written and said about President Obama’s performance, covering his first hundred days in office. Of course, the liberal media have been fawning all over him, and he has had some critics, but I see what he has been doing as an attempt to disarm our country militarily and remake our nation into a socialistic society.

Obama wants to cut the defense budget by 10 percent, probably so he can use the extra money for more bailouts and social engineering projects. Like draft-dodger Bill Clinton, he hates the military.

His top mission is supposed to be national security, as has been the case with all of our past presidents/commanders-in-chief, beginning with George Washington. Yet, Obama has chosen to shut down the state-of-the-art terrorist detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, (“Gitmo”) and withdraw our troops from Iraq in 2010, whether or not Iraq will be truly secure at that time.

Our president has taken the position that the detainees have rights. It doesn’t matter to him that our terrorist enemies wear no uniforms, only masks. They do not represent any particular county, but they do belong to terrorist organizations by the names of Taliban and Al-Quada. Members of these groups were responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 American citizens on Sept. 11.

Obama appears to be fixated on the subject of “enhanced interrogation,” or torture in his view, with the main emphasis on interrogation method called “water boarding.” In my opinion, water boarding is not life threatening but very effective in gaining critical intelligence from prisoners.

It has been reported that information gathered from detainees via water boarding has resulted in the prevention of several additional terrorist attacks since the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Obama should consider what real torture is, i.e., innocent citizens burning or jumping to their deaths on Sept. 11 or terrorists slicing off the heads of American captive soldiers and civilians.

President Obama still has no plan as to where the detainees will be incarcerated when Gitmo is closed. Why? Because no U.S. state or foreign country wants these terrorist killers near their citizens.

Space does not permit me to address other badly botched issues such as the banks, auto companies, cap-and-trade laws, redistribution of wealth, etc.

I give Barack Obama an “F” on all of the above!

Byrd Looper

Selma