Dying vet's "fuck you" letter to George Bush & Dick Cheney Succinct Verbosity: The Last Letter A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran 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. Succinct Verbosity: 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
Succinct Verbosity: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/dying_vets_fuck_you_letter_to_george_bush_dick_cheney_needs_to_be_read http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/ MichaeI: As tragic as that is, he willingly signed up to join the military knowing he may be put in harm's way. I don't think in the history of wars anybody would say that war is a good idea. It sucks and it does affect people. I think that's why we have Veteran's Day. For those killed or injured in war. Their sacrifice is appreciated. Just as his is and will be.  Metaverseguy: I'm surprised how much attention this letter has gotten. I've come to learn that politics and the military are like a big machine that aren't really controlled by one person or a group of people, but goes in a certain direction from factors and is nearly impossible to stop. There's hundreds of thousands of vets in the military that can't be individually cared for or known by politicians and since they don't have the freedom of speech or press it's nearly impossible to hear their voices. I think this letter is important though. ohnonotthatguy: In my opinion all the citizens of the USA should be charged with murder,manslaughter and public mischief of the Iraqi nation and it's citizens USA citizens voted for their elected politicians (democracy) and such invasion of Iraq was the wishes of the American public carried out by Mr. Bush,the elected President,the chief in Command representing the American citizen. 4500 dead American kids isn't that bad,could have been a lot worse maybe something like Vietnam. Succinct Verbosity: " In my opinion all the citizens of the USA should be charged with murder,manslaughter and public mischief of the Iraqi nation and it's citizens" Because grouping all Muslims together as if they were terrorists wasn't dumb enough, let's group all Americans together too! ... Metaverseguy: Yea there have been many protests about the war and plenty of people didn't vote for Bush. Cheney was ex-CEO of Haliburton (an oil company) and we mysteriously invaded Iraq, when Al-Qaeda was in Afghanistan and they never did find those WMD's but surprise, surprise, they did find tons of barrels of petroleum.  diolover71: Is war ever about anything other than money?I don`t believe that people will ever wake up and see how pathetic and disgusting it is to worship it. There is no patriotic loyalty among these so called leaders;they are loyal only to wealth.Can we really blame them? Who doesn`t subscribe to the "anything for a dollar"capitalist creed. As far as voting goes;what a joke!Pick your favorite millionaire.I have yet to see a government sponsored institution that isn`t a facade; the education system,the human rights commission, law enforcement,the prison system etc.,etc. I do feel bad for the people who do join the military though.We are all programmed and brainwashed in our "education system"(if you don`t eat your meat,how can you have any pudding?)Our movies glorify violence and children are seduced by it via cartoons and movies. Tomas Young`s letter should be a part of what our children study at school!!!!  jennebraska: Wow, thank you for sharing that!! Ane I wholeheartedly agree that letter should be studied and presented in teh education system. We are after all a republic where the people should still have the write to be heard. And why do the oil companies make such money, while those who defend thier (blown out of portion oil-ceo's salary and bonuses) die in pain and misery? Where has the oil companies given back to the military,the USA people, or the people in the countries where we have taken thier oil for such small fee? TOMMY VERCETTI: Remember what BRAD PITTS character said in the film KILLING THEM SOFTLY. " The United States Isn't a country it's a business" jennebraska: The little guy is the one dying ask me. The big guys(cats) are the ones sitting in thier 24 room yachts shooting off firecrackers celebrating the 4th. While this little guy above was dying. Life might not be fair, but this is just wrong. Xcen10: regardless of how one views this Last Letter (written years ago) one should read the followup interview done in Mar '13. The letter relates to personal choices and events that happened shortly after 9/11, a very long time ago. In the 2013 interview Young states he felt he was in a going nowhere job at Office Max so he enlisted, but after finishing basic training was already trying to avoid going to Iraq, Lifes circumstances turned against him there, he was critically injured, followed by a bitter divorce, and after a slow decline in overall health and has decided to volunteer for hospice assisted suicide. | Politics Chat Room 41 People Chatting Similar Conversations |