Dear President Bush,                                                                                                        11/09/04 

    On behalf of the officers and members of the National Alliance of Lebanese Americans (NALA) we wish to extend our congratulations to you upon your reelection to the office of President of the United States.  Lebanese Americans gave you strong support in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Colorado and so we are particularly gratified with your win. When it comes to Lebanon, though we are both Democrat and Republican, this issue transended all others in bringing our votes into your column. 

    We have appreciated the cooperation and the hearing that we have had with your Administration, particularly within the State Department, the Defense Department and the National Security Council   regarding issues touching on the Middle Eastern policy of your Administration and particularly Lebanon.  Just this past September we worked in close conjunction with your National Security Staff in working up the draft of what eventually became UN Security Council Resolution 1559. 

    That resolution was a land mark in US-Lebanese relations and a clear expression of the intent of the United States,  acting in concert with our allies through the United Nations,  to force the expulsion of Syrian intelligence and military officers from Lebanon, and ending of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and a dismantling of the military aspects of Hizbollah in Lebanon.   

    The warning which was UN RES 1559 has gone unheeded in both Damascus and captive Beirut. 

    We in the National Alliance of Lebanese Americans believe strongly in the intent and objective of the Greater Middle Eastern Strategic Initiative which you announced at Sea Island Georgia at the G-8 Meeting.  It is the proper and only response to 9/11. The best way to defend the American homeland is to end the autocracies and corrupt regimes which repress the peoples of the Middle East  and which create the pools of ready volunteers to engage in acts of terrorism, and to bring to the states of the Middle East the blessings of self government.   

    Lebanon is a country that had that gift at one time and lost it.  Though the Lebanese are ready to resume their own experiment in self government, they are occupied and repressed and therefore unable to resume their journey. Your administration has recognized more than any other since 1973 the problem and the problem is the Syrian occupation. 

    We look forward to working with your Second Administration to complete the work of the First in not only addressing the problem posed by Syria in Lebanon, but in successfully addressing it.  I am sure that you are well aware that Syria has made itself both a financial and a logistical conduit for the transshipment of money and men to fight the Coalition Forces in Iraq.  It is President Assad's strategy to keep America pinned down in neighboring Iraq so that we can not come knocking on his door or on the door of his regional ally Iran which is rapidly developing its own nuclear device. 

    By successfully addressing the issue of the conduct of the Syrian regime, not only will Lebanon be relieved of the greatest obstacle in its path toward the restoration of self government, but your Administration will also have lanced the boil that sits atop the primary American objective in the region of bringing self government successfully to Iraq. 

    We will be with you in this effort. 

    Sincerely yours,                                                              

    Joseph L. Boohaker                                                         

    Birmingham Alabama

    National Alliance Of Lebanese Americans (NALA) 

    Chairman - Policy Advisory Board