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sailingaway
03-19-2013, 08:14 PM
To: 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.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=51293

qh4dotcom
03-19-2013, 08:21 PM
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.

First of all...unless this guy did not vote for Bush, Romney, McCain or any other corrupt war pig in Congress....he has no credibility

If millions of veterans know who Bush was and what he has done....why do they continue to overwhelmingly support pro-war politicians? Why aren't they giving Bush and the other corrupt war pigs the finger?

sailingaway
03-19-2013, 08:23 PM
First of all...unless this guy did not vote for Bush, Romney, McCain or any other corrupt war pig in Congress....he has no credibility

If millions of veterans know who Bush was and what he has done....why do they continue to overwhelmingly support pro-war politicians? Why aren't they giving Bush and the other corrupt war pigs the finger?

Seriously?

If this guy hasn't made it clear he doesn't support them, knowing what he knows now, I don't know how he could make it clearer. And held the letter to release on the tenth anniversary when Iraq would be in the news again.

Christian Liberty
03-19-2013, 08:28 PM
Bush deserves a Nuremberg Trial and a hanging. I don't see how you could read that letter and honestly disagree.

Were we really defending our freedom in Afghanistan either? I don't think so...

AGRP
03-19-2013, 08:33 PM
Cant help but feel the worst for people who joined right after 9/11.

jay_dub
03-19-2013, 08:58 PM
Cant help but feel the worst for people who joined right after 9/11.

He made plain how he feels about what he has done.


And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes.

There was mass hysteria in the country right after 9/11. He bought into it and is now paying the price. I understand what you are saying, but he is not alone in being duped. I feel bad for him and applaud his letter.

TheGrinch
03-19-2013, 09:13 PM
Cant help but feel the worst for people who joined right after 9/11.

I was 19 at the time, naive, and my head shaved ready to go. My mom cried as I told here what I planned to do, but thank god I knew I had a different calling. It brought a tear to my eye reading this story, thinking about guys like this who just wanted to defend their country, and found themselves sacrificed for a game of world conquest.

qh4dotcom
03-19-2013, 09:19 PM
Bush deserves a Nuremberg Trial and a hanging. I don't see how you could read that letter and honestly disagree.

Were we really defending our freedom in Afghanistan either? I don't think so...

I disagree because every member of the military took an oath to not participate in unconstitutional B.S wars like the one in Iraq.

Don't forget that you and I had to pay for their unconstitutional foreign adventures every April 15th.

qh4dotcom
03-19-2013, 09:21 PM
Seriously?

If this guy hasn't made it clear he doesn't support them, knowing what he knows now, I don't know how he could make it clearer. And held the letter to release on the tenth anniversary when Iraq would be in the news again.

If you want me to feel sorry for this guy I can...I just need to know that he did not support Bush, Romney, McCain or any other corrupt war pig at the ballot box.

Oh, and how come he is only addressing Bush...and ignoring Obama and the other corrupt war pigs in Congress who sent him to war?

Some of my best friends are veterans...they get it...they are pro-liberty and don't support tyrants.

TheGrinch
03-19-2013, 09:26 PM
I disagree because every member of the military took an oath to not participate in unconstitutional B.S wars like the one in Iraq.

Don't forget that you and I had to pay for their unconstitutional foreign adventures every April 15th.

He was a naive kid who joined right after 9/11 and was lied to like we all were to believe Iraq had WMDs and supported all quad a, and is now paying his life as he sees how he was duped, so stop with the holier than thou crap.

TheGrinch
03-19-2013, 09:28 PM
If you want me to feel sorry for this guy I can...I just need to know that he did not support Bush, Romney, McCain or any other corrupt war pig at the ballot box.

Oh, and how come he is only addressing Bush...and ignoring Obama and the other corrupt war pigs in Congress who sent him to war?

Some of my best friends are veterans...they get it...they are pro-liberty and don't support tyrants.

There was a time when all of us didn't "get it", that doesn't make them worthy of you spitting on their introspection, let alone on a mans deathbed

HOLLYWOOD
03-19-2013, 09:41 PM
People and most VETS just don't get it... these marionettes and/or jokers are laughing at all of U.S. It's the BIG CON

http://blogs.reuters.com/sport/files/2009/07/pres1.jpg

kcchiefs6465
03-19-2013, 11:59 PM
A damn shame.