Dying Vets' letter to Bush & Cheney ~ FU

Today

Tomas Young, a dying Iraq War Veteran has pennd his *Last Letter* to Bush & Cheney on todays' Iraq War's 10th Anniversary ...

A bullet from an AK-47 severed his spine ... another struck his knee.
Young would never walk again, and in fact, for the next nearly nine years, he would suffer a number of medical setbacks that allowed him to survive only with the help of extensive medical procedures and the care of his wife, Claudia.


*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*

~ Tomas Young


DYING VET’S ‘(*)(*)(*)(*) YOU’ LETTER TO GEORGE BUSH & DICK CHENEY NEEDS TO BE READ BY EVERY AMERICAN

Today March 19, 2013 at 3:29 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/tomas-young-letter-iraq_n_2908335.html

http://leaksource.wordpress.com/201...ck-cheney-needs-to-be-read-by-every-american/

*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.

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 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*


~ Tomas Young

 

So, do progressives support the troops, or do they see them as mercenaries who volunteer to kill people in the third world for the US gov't and oil companies?

The only time that I see a progressive supporting a member of the military is when they are critical of the war or Republicans.

Do progressives appreciate our Army, Marine, SEAL, and allied snipers who daily risk their lives to blow the heads off of Taliban pukes?

 

thank you for that! wish we could thank the authors as well

 

The Obama administration is horrible toward sick vets like this guy.

 

Have any American service members been harmed during Obama's Afghan surge? The Media seems to have stopped reporting the weekly and monthly body counts, since Obama took office.

 

The only time that I see a progressive supporting a member of the military is when they are critical of the war or Republicans. The late Ron Silver was upset at the USAF doing a fly over at Clinton's inauguration ceremony until he realized that Clinton was now Commander in Chief where upon he said..."Wait a minute those are OUR planes now."

Now that Obama is CinC, all those deaths under his regime are apparently OK.

 

Plenty of vets who hate Obama ..... Lol

 

I think the important point is, do Bush & Cheney and all the neocons ?

Let's take a look ...

On Duhbyas' Facebook he's proud to share that Scribner is re-releasing his daddys' book of letters, “All the Best,” with a brand new 70-page chapter.
Since the first edition, "41" says a lot has happened – including his son becoming President of the United States, 9/11, and his friendship with President Bill Clinton.

“And through it all, Barbara and I grew old, happily and peacefully together,” he says in the new preface.


Let's see what else they're doing ...

Team Iraqi Freedom: Where Are They Now ?

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/03/bush-administration-iraq-where-are-they-now/63283/


Bush since leaving office, has painted more than 50 dogs ... oddly, he doesn't paint people ... Hitler didn't either and this denied him entry to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts ... where this is one of several reasons for his hatred of himself and others ...

 

I know, they have to clean up the mess left by the Bush Administration.

 

Note to all young people contemplating a military career. Please do not join if you're not willing to fight and die for your country at a moments notice.
It's great to learn a skill and see new places, but never forget the real reason the armed services exist.

 

The guy seems to have a serious case of shell shock.

If he served honorably then I feel sorry for him.

The war was a mistake.

The Iraqi's and Afghans are animals and will never find peace on this planet.

While Bush is an idiot he is not a liar, a war criminal, a murderer or a thief.

The man is, like many libs in this country, simply delusional.

Maybe he's on pain killers and just doesn't know what he's saying.

 

worse, they must be ready to die in the service of a country that is intent on aiding American corporations acquire the natural resources of third world countries at unconscionably low prices!

 

Maybe, but thanks for not answering my questions. The silence is damming.

 

Tomas Young is FU'g Bush & Cheney and all the neocons ... this is because the sniper who took 'em out was one of the people Bush *liberated*

 

exotix, you are one (*)(*)(*)(*)ed up person with no wisdom. Wish you was in my platoon.....

 

Obama could put a stop to at least part of that by instituting an executive order to outfit all Federal vehicles with Natural gas. Why doesn't he do it?

 

ask his fundraisers

 

This veteran speaks only for himself.

 

Liberals attack George W Bush over his paintings comparing him to Hitler

[video=youtube;yqsaOKpFTZs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqsaOKpFTZs[/video]

 

"Moral courage to face what you've done to me", he says. Was it not his choice to join the armed forces? Yes it was, there is no draft.

He probably thought he was going to make it back in one piece, then he didn't and now he's mad. Maybe this guy was extremely gullible, fell for the whole "serve your country" bull(*)(*)(*)(*). Can we fault him for that? Or is it the fault of his parents or the recruiter?

Do not enlist in the armed forces, that is the best advice I have for todays youth. Of course it works out for some but I personally wouldn't take the chance to swear some bs oath to a bunch of greedy war mongers.

 

read his letter pal. he joined for the specific purpose of getting the guys that did 9/11. Iraq and saddam had nothing to do with that.

 

Then he was a fool with dreams. I do not understand why people put on a uniform without thought.

 

How did you manage to glean this from this ...


*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.*

 

You mean like someone who joined the Army to fight Japs and get even for Pearl Harbor but got sent to Europe instead?

Bummer.

 

he did think. he was outraged by what had happened and he wanted to help do something about it. not smart, ill grant you. American presidents cannot be trusted to use the military honestly