An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

Your statement today about the shootings that took place in Ottawa this morning were incredibly insensitive and disrespectful toward Prime Minister Harper and the Canadian people at large.

The Canadian public was in shock today, glued to their television screens as events unfolded. Knowing that the soldier on guard at the National War Memorial (akin to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) was shot and later died, and that there was an attack on Parliament itself, is numbing.

To idiotically state that...

"We don’t yet have all the information about what motivated the shooting. We don’t yet have all the information about whether this was part of a broader network or plan, or whether this was an individual or series of individuals who decided to take these actions. But it emphasizes the degree to which we have to remain vigilant when it comes to dealing with these kinds of acts of senseless violence or terrorism...."

Really Mr. President?! Really? We don't know "what motivated the shooting"? The Prime Minister has already determined that todays acts were terrorism. Terrorism. Or is that too harsh a word for you to say? Is "workplace violence" easier for you?

You disrespect Prime Minister Harper by assuming that you must know better - it couldn't possibly be terrorism... or perhaps it is as you suggest... "senseless violence".

These were not random targets. The National War Memorial, honoring the soldiers who gave their lives in defense of their country and western values. Parliament itself, the heart of the nation. A nation that believes in democracy and equal rights for all people.

Earlier in your statement, you refer to the attack on another two soldiers that occurred just two days ago - also, determined by the Canadian government to be a terrorist attack. You refer to it as a vague "attack". Would you rather call this also an act of "workplace violence"? And since both the attacks on Monday and this morning were by recent converts to Islam are we to be assured that Islam had nothing to do with either one?

As an American living in Canada, I am embarrassed by your response - an insensitive, disrespectful statement blind to the obvious murderous attack on western civilization.