Letter From a Dying Iraq War Vet

[nucklehead]

http://www.democracy...a_dying_veteran

Tomas Young, Iraq War veteran and the main subject of the documentary, Body of War. On April 4, 2004, his fifth day in Iraq, Young's unit came under fire in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad. Young was left paralyzed, never to walk again. Released from medical care three months later, Young returned home to become an active member in Iraq Veterans Against the War. He recently announced that he will stop his nourishment, which comes in the form of liquid through a feeding tube — a decision which will hasten his death.

Here is his final letter to Bush and Cheney.

"I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq 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 who bear those wounds. I am one of those.] I am one of the gravely injured. I [am] 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 parents, 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 [done, witnessed, endured] 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.

"Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, [and your privilege and 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 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.

"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 [9/11] attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the [u.S.] 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 biggest 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 have, like many other [wounded and 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 [disabilities and] 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 [own] brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

"I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded 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 our country I love—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.

"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."

[Horny Manatee]

You're telling me he didn't know what he was getting himself into? Did he completely ignore past wars?

[Ghostsof1915]

You're telling me he didn't know what he was getting himself into? Did he completely ignore past wars?

[Kumquats]

[SNACanuck]

Unfortunately Cheney and Bush are don't give a crap. Cheney is like that old grouch in the neighborhood that everyone hates but never has anything happen to him... Dude shot someone(a friend nonetheless) and has a heart attack and nothing happened. Go figure.

The vast majority of the vet's letter I agree with some points I don't. But you can't help but feel for him. Especially when he's at the end of his journey in this world.

[Dogbyte]

Dead on. I can't comprehend the loss of people's sons daughters, parents, and family all to put money in someone's pockets. These people are rich anyway and don't even need the money. I hate this world sometimes.

[CanuckRow]

The United States Army: Fighting someone else's battles.

[MoneypuckOverlord]

There was actually no WMD. There never was any. It was all fabricated to give USA and Britian a reason to go into Iraq. USA are the worlds biggest bullies on the planet. I am very ashamed that my country Canada follows their footsteps, its really unfair. Nato is actually the world axis right now. It seems like "The West" which is made up of developed nations and loyal to the United States, thinks all regimes are bad bad, bad and very bad. Even though they don't have the right to vote, it doesn't mean those countries are badly run, just like Libya and Syria. Libya was one of the best countries in Africa to live in prior to the mess. You get free College, and they focused more on their youth. One day United is going to meet their match of some sort, and it's going to get nasty. It's funny how they are not touching the Syria situation. Good for them.

[Buggernut]

Dead on. I can't comprehend the loss of people's sons daughters, parents, and family all to put money in someone's pockets. These people are rich anyway and don't even need the money. I hate this world sometimes.

[etsen3]

The United States Army: Fighting someone else's battles.

[Electro Rock]

Republicans and neocons are all about the dog-eat-dog assholes-and-idiots relationship of the world.

[Buggernut]

Everything that happened as far as wars and foreign policy during the Bush years would have happened also withe Democrats, although the media would have put a much better face on everything.

[Electro Rock]

Not sure about that, since the Democrats are the party of choice of those who are against that sort of thing. Then again, does the democratic will of the people really have any power over the MIC?

[Buggernut]

At this point its basically down to a popularity contest between figureheads.

There are antiwar Republicans too, but do you think they're in the driver's seat either?

[Jai604]

Poignant, and really quite sad.

Ugh, I don't even know what to say about Bush, Cheney, etc. I just get a sick feeling in my stomach.