A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

I post this is Political Madness because it is Madness that these people have been allowed to get away with doing this to the American People and the world.

From an open letter to George bush and dick Cheney by Tomas Young and Iraqi war Veteran.

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

Full letter here

CTH

for that to happen bush and co. would first have to find a conscious ... psychopaths never feel guilt for their actions nor do they apologise ...

reply to post by CthulhuRising


bump. Its important.

here is another snippet from another article on that same site about the wounded of Iraq. I thought it too was as note worthy as the letter you posted.

I cannot help but wonder what it will be like for the young men and women wounded in Iraq. What will their homecoming be like? I feel close to them. Though many years separate us we are brothers and sisters. We have all been to the same place. For us in 1968 it was the Bronx veterans hospital paraplegic ward, overcrowded, understaffed, rats on the ward, a flood of memories and images, I can never forget; urine bags overflowing onto the floor. It seemed more like a slum than a hospital. Paralyzed men lying in their own excrement, pushing call buttons for aides who never came, wondering how our government could spend so much money (billions of dollars) on the most lethal, technologically advanced weaponry to kill and maim human beings but not be able to take care of its own wounded when they came home.

Will it be the same for them? Will they have to return to these same unspeakable conditions? Has any of it changed? I have heard that our government has already attempted to cut back millions in much needed funds for veterans hospitals—and this when thousands of wounded soldiers are returning from Iraq. Will they too be left abandoned and forgotten by a president and administration whose patriotic rhetoric does not match the needs of our wounded troops now returning?

Do the American people, the president, the politicians, senators and congressmen who sent us to this war have any idea what it really means to lose an arm or a leg, to be paralyzed, to begin to cope with the psychological wounds of that war? Do they have any concept of the long-term effects of these injuries, how the struggles of the wounded are only now just beginning? How many will die young and never live out their lives because of all the stress and myriad of problems that come with sending young men and women into combat?

www.truthdig.com...

CNN's homepage has a poll asking if Bush and Blair should be tried for war crimes for Iraq.

Currently at 57% Yes

The real question is Why now? Why is the media trying to stir outrage over Iraq (and ultimately all war) at this point in 2013? CNN's homepage yesterday had a huge headline about the Iraq war being an oil grab. I agree that it was, and Bush and Blair are no better than Ahmedinejad and Ghadafi

But the timing is suspicious

Yeah well - what's his hometown community doing for him? All the people he ‘served’ for?
Who's helping him and who’s turning their head away?

It’s sooo easy to point the finger at ‘big government’ but it’s even easier to blame it on ‘them’ and not do anything to help.

Am I sticking up for the thumb sucking war mongers? Of course not. I think both Bush and his henchmen should be tried for crimes against humanity. But we know that's not going to happen and neither of those two or the government is going to do anything adequate to help this guy.

So instead of whining - who’s helping this guy. For real? I know I wish I could.

peace

reply to post by CthulhuRising


Thanks for sharing. I think our top leaders are hugely disconnected from the realities of war and the experiences of our vets. I have always wondered why we would not require any president to serve their 4 year stint (maybe bush did but not obama). Come on - at least basics training. The head of the military probably doesn't know how to even shoot a gun yet makes life/death decisions.

reply to post by silo13


Who's helping him? This young man has decided he is beyond help and has decided to end his time here. He talks of his decision in this interview
very sad and infuriating..

CTH

reply to post by silo13


Who's helping him? - Hospice. Same people that helped my father leave this world with dignity and grace when cancer had eaten his brain nearly away. Nobody elsecan help this poor man now.
As for Bush and Cheney and everyone who went bananas with revenge after 9/11 shame on them all. There is no punishment that could fit their crime. All we can do is hope to raise generations of young people to become better than we were, people with morals who live and die by principles our generation has seemed to have forgotten.

I had just finished reading the following article about the Iraq War before coming across this post. And now they want us to back them against Syria and Iran for the same reasons. Fool me once....

...in a September 2000 report prepared by the neoconservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC). The report, commissioned by Dick Cheney, outlines a plan “to maintain American military preeminence that is consistent with the requirements of a strategy of American global leadership.” It notes that while “the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” Another document produced for Vice President Cheney’s secret Energy Task Force included a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals as well as charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” That document was dated March 2001, six months before 9/11 and two years before Bush invaded Iraq.

Iraq: A war of aggression

I have so many things to say, but I will apply my filter and limit my response.

1) Not one soldier serving today was drafted. NOT ONE. Blame Bush, blame Cheney, blame video games and movies. Blame everyone, except the man that signed up of his own free will. People die every day, civilians get cancer, civilians get shot, civilians drink themselves into the grave. Every soldier started out life as a civilian, so it makes sense that they too would suffer the same frailties.

2) Bush left office five years ago, but the wars have only expanded. Those of you that want war crimes trials for Bush must also want them for Obama. His hands are in no way clean. Being a democrat does not mean he shares no responsibility, it just means he doesn't accept responsibility.

And before I'm attacked with emotional drivel: I am a disabled combat veteran with 42 months of combat experience. I have been shot, stabbed, and blown up. I do not hate soldiers, I simply hate people that bemoan fate when it bites them in the ass. This guy (and many like him) rolled the dice and got "snake eyes".

I am not a republican or democrat. I am an American.

Originally posted by 200Plus
I have so many things to say, but I will apply my filter and limit my response.

1) Not one soldier serving today was drafted. NOT ONE. Blame Bush, blame Cheney, blame video games and movies. Blame everyone, except the man that signed up of his own free will. People die every day, civilians get cancer, civilians get shot, civilians drink themselves into the grave. Every soldier started out life as a civilian, so it makes sense that they too would suffer the same frailties.

2) Bush left office five years ago, but the wars have only expanded. Those of you that want war crimes trials for Bush must also want them for Obama. His hands are in no way clean. Being a democrat does not mean he shares no responsibility, it just means he doesn't accept responsibility.

And before I'm attacked with emotional drivel: I am a disabled combat veteran with 42 months of combat experience. I have been shot, stabbed, and blown up. I do not had soldiers, I simply hate people that bemoan fate when it bites them in the ass. This guy (and many like him) rolled the dice and got "snake eyes".

I am not a republican or democrat. I am an American.

He signed up to serve and defend America, as did most of the brave people in the armed forces. He did not sign up to be forced into fighting a war of aggression which started because of lies fabricated by his own Government at the behest of big business in which it is estimated close to 1 million innocent civilians have been killed...

reply to post by 200Plus


I was still a boy when I was 18 years old. If some one in a position of power, who I looked upon as all wise and all knowing told me that Iraq and Saddam was responsible for killing 3000 of my country men, I just might sign up to defend my people and my family.

Being young and impressionable is now their own fault?

reply to post by Seagle


"I will obey the orders of the president and the orders of the officers appointed over me...." not "I will obey the orders that have been fully explained and that I agree with"

He is dying - oh poor uninformed soldier, he didn't sign up for this

He is healthy - evil devil soldier, kills women and kids for profit

If he didn't want to do the job and take the risks he never should have signed up. He made a choice and it comes with a heavy price.

reply to post by BoogieMan911


I signed up when I was 17, but I stopped being a boy when I was 14 or so. I knew there were risks involved. Are we saying this individual didn't have the mental capacity to know war is dangerous?

Even as a child I knew that men were not "all knowing, all powerful". Especially Bush, what person can listen to him and think that?

reply to post by 200Plus

Are we saying this individual didn't have the mental capacity to know war is dangerous?

Exactly, that's not saying he is stupid, it's just saying he fell for the propaganda, and underestimated the true danger. Some will, some won't.

Youth shouldn't be taken advantage of, maybe the sign up age should be lifted to at least 25.

reply to post by 200Plus


so which war did you fight in?

reply to post by BoogieMan911


The guy wasn't a kid, although he may be slightly below average intelligence. He made a choice to join. It is terrible what happened to him. Based on the views he currently espouses this may be a good thing. He hates war, he hates the government. He was injured five days after he got into country. At least his hands are clean and his soul is unstained.

From the Article:

“I look at the TV through the lens of his eyes and can see he is invisible,” said Claudia, standing in the living room as her husband rested in the bedroom. An array of books on death, the afterlife and dying are spread out around her. “No one is sick [on television]. No one is disabled. No one faces death. Dying in America is a very lonely business.”

“If I had known then what I know now,” Young said, “I would not have gone into the military. But I was 22, working various menial jobs, waiting tables, [working] in the copy department of an OfficeMax. My life was going nowhere. Sept. 11 happened. I saw us being attacked. I wanted to respond. I signed up two days later. I wanted to be a combat journalist. I thought the military would help me out of my financial rut. I thought I could use the GI Bill to go to school.”

reply to post by Seagle


Afghanistan 01-02
Iraq 03-05, 05-06, 08-09

You?

He should add Obama to the address list.

Broken men and women are part of war. It has been this way ever since there was war. The truth is, our veterans are treated better than they ever have been: better care than Vietnam, better care than WWII. WWII left orders of magnitude more men paralyzed with chronic injuries. WWII vets comitted suicide more often than OIF/OEF vets (largely because mental health issues were largely ignored and poorly understood back then).