Veteran Pens Last Letter to Bush and Cheney

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   Sooner28posted 12 years ago

   http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_la … 20130318/- Actual letter
   
   http://www.ibtimes.com/dying-iraq-veter … ey-1137409  This link is just to substantiate the letter is real, since some people who supported the war in Iraq may be lead, for psychological reasons, to doubt its authenticity.

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   jandeeposted 12 years ago

   Hello Sooner28,
   
   I wish to thank you for bringing this letter to my attention.   It is truly a terrible  evil that was inflicted on these young innocents,  who were misled, and only discovered how they had been hoodwinked into thinking they were helping their own countries.      I fear that the only peace that they can hope for is for your/our countrymen/women to realise that it was all a well engineered plan from the ruling class and to let these veterans know that.
   thanks again ,
   jandee

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      Sooner28posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If war brought peace, our world would be a field of daises and lilies.

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   BuckyGoldsteinposted 12 years ago

   He doesn't speak for me.

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      What is your point?

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         BuckyGoldsteinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You will notice he said us, he does not speak for me, many of "us" took the pain and would do it again because it was our duty! You may not like that but I don't really give a crap what you like or you don't. Does that answer your question?
         
         "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."

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            Sooner28posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Are duty and obedience to authority your only considerations when making decisions like that?

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               BuckyGoldsteinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Is that a real question? Do you think I got a choice? My choice was joining the military and I did it for reasons I doubt you could ever understand. Now once I joined the choice was not mine again! They don't ask us if we want to go blow shit up they send us to blow shit up.

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                  innersmiffposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Yeeeee-hah!

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                  Sooner28posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  That's the problem.  The structure of the military is set up for you to not be able to question authority or disagree.  You have to simply follow orders right?  I don't doubt your sincerity one bit, and I do appreciate you volunteering to fight for your country in a cause you thought was right.
                  
                  But if every service man and woman decided whether to follow based on conscience instead of command, our political leaders would not have nearly unlimited power to wage war.

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   jandeeposted 12 years ago

   Hello sooner28,
   
   I didn't think I would see a repeat of the utter sadness and hopelessness as we saw in the Vietnam days as the Veterans returned home, amidst student and housewife demos.   This surely is as nonsensical and evil with much worse to come as Blair is now bleating about MORE action in Syria as he climbs higher up the "Peace " ladder.

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   wildernessposted 12 years ago

   A different view from 3 local Iraq veterans:
   
   "I'm proud of what we did"
   
   "...Sellars helped maintain security during Iraq's first national election, and helped train Iraqi Army and police.
   "I thought those were really positive things we left them," he said. "I'm proud of what we did."
   
   "I could hate that place until my dying breath, but I have to let it go."
   
   "...I am now permanently imbued with the pride of being a veteran, having served my country in a combat arms unit.
   
   http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/03/1 … k=timetest

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   jandeeposted 12 years ago

   Wilderness,
       haven't read your link yet but will in the light of day .
   
   At first look it seems to be unbalanced,
   
   jandee.

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Probably because I picked random quotes (from 3 different vets) from a rather long article that were directly opposing the view, attitude and comments from the link in the OP.
      
      The point being that there is no consensus even amongst vets.  That war, like any war, affects every differently.  Not only in physical survival/damage but in mental outlook as well.  Some "recover" mentally, some never really do and will remain "broken" their entire lives.

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   Sooner28posted 12 years ago

   There's veterans who cannot psychologically admit to themselves their actions in Iraq made the situation worse and ultimately has not led to a more tolerant and stable Iraq.
   
   It's the same thing with the Vietnam veterans.  Their service was in vain, and that is tragedy in all of this!  The politicians just lied.  It's not an uncommon event in history. 
   
   Some veterans do admit this, like the letter of the guy I posted, or Iraq Veterans Against The War http://www.ivaw.org/

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      True.  Just as there are those, veterans or not, that can find zero good in what we did there.

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   Healthy Pursuitsposted 12 years ago

   Sooner28,
   
   It is definitely a tragedy that our soldiers didn't help the situation and didn't stop anything. It's also a criminal situation that our politicians lied. But the biggest tragedy is that this has happened now in at least TWO major wars in the last 50 years. Those wars have cost the lives of many young Americans who were willing to serve - not to mention the death and destruction in the countries the wars were fought in -
   
   and we're still talking...talking...talking. The politicians weren't caught and punished. The contractors who made millions - or billions - still made their blood money. Nothing has changed, except that another generation of young people have been duped, murdered, or mangled and left to their own resources when they are no longer useful to the war machine.
   
   Shouldn't there be something in place to protect our troops better? Something that says our politicians have to go through more checks and balances before they commit other lives to exposure to ruin or death? It seems we go to war very easily on very little information.

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      Sooner28posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Our media failed.  I think the media's relationship with the government should be inherently antagonistic.
      
      What do I mean by that?  I mean that if a politician makes a claim, the press should do everything in their power to investigate every possible interpretation of the claim and not simply accept what the politician says because of privileged access or popular opinion.
      
      The media has apologized for the Iraq war; and while an apology is good, what do you tell the parents of Americans who died in this war because their leaders told them it was just and necessary?  How can you console the children who will no longer have a mother or father because an oil man happened to become president at the most opportune time for an invasion?
      
      It's disgraceful, and Bush and Cheney still refuse to even admit it was wrong to invade Iraq.  Cheney has even explicitly claimed he wouldn't change anything!  So, history is continually portraying this as a bad decision, and the vindication for those wronged by the war may only come when the history books are finally written on Iraq.

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         jandeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Worst thing is yesterday on TV we had the wonderful, lying through his teeth,Tony Blair, still strutting about and boasting and insisting that Syria should be sorted out now. Some MIDDLE EAST PEACE ENVOY he is.

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            jandeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            In U.k we are,at this very moment having the most right wing attack on our NHS which is in threat of being Privatised.On every town street there are Demos,meetings and all kinds of resistance to these Welfare attacks.    Many people are sacking their MPs(not voting for them) and getting ordinary individuals to stand as independents or small parties that cannot be infiltrated.
            Who knows how far this could go-Imagine a no war committee.
            
            The trouble with journalists is the goodies don't get read by the public! They just get vilified and called silly names,
            jandee

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               Sooner28posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Don't let them turn you into us.

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                  jandeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Hi Sooner ! That cannot be done ! I am an internationalist.
                  jandee

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