The recent presidential campaign saw a plethora of open letters directed at Donald Trump, at least two of which were authored and signed by neoconservative foreign policy "experts" denouncing him for challenging their most cherished notions.

Now it's my turn to write an open letter, albeit coming from the opposite direction.

Dear President Trump:

Unlike what you might expect from a writer for a website like Antiwar.com, I've given you a pretty fair shake. I have to admit that, at first, I just didn't get it, but I'm honest enough to admit when I'm wrong. As you began to lay out your platform, I took notice– and, in the face of a lot of skepticism from my readers and even from some of my colleagues, I started to cheer you on. Not that I cheered every pronouncement – but when you started criticizing the conduct of American foreign policy under the Bush administration, and not just the Obama regime, I was quite impressed.

The turning point, for me, was when you got up at that South Carolina GOP presidential debate and said:

"I want to tell you. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction."

You stood there amidst a storm of booing and said "Go ahead and boo" because you knew you were speaking truth to power – and you knew the American people were listening and nodding in agreement. As for me, I wasn't just nodding – I was cheering. After all, I spent the entire run-up to the war saying precisely that, and for the first time a major political figure – and a Republican at that! — was saying it too. For the GOP frontrunner to defy decorum, take a big risk, and tell the Republican donor class and the Bush-bots the brutal unadorned truth to their faces – that took courage. It took independence of mind. In that moment, you won my respect – and my undying gratitude.

Your willingness to swim against the tide, to question what "everybody knows," was demonstrated once again when, in response to the widespread allegations that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee, you said "We have no idea who did it" – even as the Obama administration joined in the chorus. Because the truth is that we don't' know – and the "intelligence" cited by Washington is always politically self-serving.