Dying Vet's letter to GW Bush and Dick Cheney

[CptStern]

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole. ..

every american should read it

http://***********/d6p4mo9


(sorry for the tinyurl link. the original url has a word in it that Valvetime's swear filter doesnt allow)

edit: ffs tiny url is filtered? just type in tiny url plus DOT COM

ok here's the entire letter for those too lazy to type:

o: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.
I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.
I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.
I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

 

[ríomhaire]

URL shortening sites are filtered because they can be used to hide links to dodgey sites.

 

[CptStern]

what's one to do when a word is filtered out of an url? why even have a word filter? all 6 active members are adults

 

[Omnomnick]

what's one to do when a word is filtered out of an url? why even have a word filter? all 6 active members are adults

Stern, you aren't classified as an "adult".

 

[CptStern]

who are you? you're not one of the 6

 

[Krynn72]

I'm glad that by the time I was able to enlist we had seen enough evidence to know that the whole WMD thing was a total farce. I had seriously contemplated enlisting in the military up until then. When I saw how how easily the military is used for unjust purposes I knew I couldn't. I needed to have complete trust that people giving me orders are doing so to to accomplish a just mission. After the whole "oh, we couldn't find WMDs but hey at least we got Saddam, am I right guys?!" thing... yeah not going to happen. In fact, even at that young age I wasn't on board with the whole "kill them before they have the ability to kill us" motive that most people seemed to actually support.

 

[MFL]

Give the Cap'n a break, he's loosin his marbles in his old age.

 

[CptStern]

I'm glad that by the time I was able to enlist we had seen enough evidence to know that the whole WMD thing was a total farce. I had seriously contemplated enlisting in the military up until then.

all you had to do was click through the politics section at hl2.net about the time you joined (a year after the invasion). I and a few other members were repeatedly saying how the intelligence was being manipulated to justify the invasion. even though it proved very unpopular and many members made it their mission to harass us for daring to speak out against bush and his evil cronies we stuck to our guns. not being a bitter man I'd just like to say to those people; "WHERE'S YOUR MESSIAH NOW??"

there are hundreds of threads like this:

http://www.valvetime.net/threads/wmd-commission-report-bush-did-not-lie.77564/#post-1334490

interesting to take a look back at where people stood on the issue of the war in iraq. lol Bodacious, I had forgotten about that knuckledragger

When I saw how how easily the military is used for unjust purposes I knew I couldn't. I needed to have complete trust that people giving me orders are doing so to to accomplish a just mission. After the whole "oh, we couldn't find WMDs but hey at least we got Saddam, am I right guys?!" thing... yeah not going to happen. In fact, even at that young age I wasn't on board with the whole "kill them before they have the ability to kill us" motive that most people seemed to actually support.

most iraqis to this day think they would have been better off with Saddam in power so in the end the invasion and occupation did nothing but piss off a lot of people and fill a lot of body bags

 

[Maestro]

Wow, this is pretty abysmal. So who else is betting on Iran being next in line?

EDIT: This seems relevant.

Nixon Committed Treason in 1968

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21768668

Declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls provide a fresh insight into his world. Among the revelations - he planned a dramatic entry into the 1968 Democratic Convention to re-join the presidential race. And he caught Richard Nixon sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks... but said nothing.

 

[Bad^Hat]

I keep thinking you're talking about a veterinarian every time I see this thread.

 

[KoreBolteR]

I have to agree with Stern here! On everything he says. Intelligence is always manipulated to justify a false flag or war.