Thom Hartmann read this letter from Iraq War veteran Tomas Young today on his show. It is heartbreaking, angry, and brutally honest.
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.
Truthdig has the full text.
Young speaks for every one of us who knew at the beginning that there was no reason to be in Iraq, other than oil lust. All of those lives lost, those young men and women injured and forever changed, all of it to serve the never-ending thirst for blood, oil and money.
Thank you, Mr. Tomas Young, for reminding us about what happens when media bows to fear and intimidation and greed prevails, and thank you, Thom Hartmann, for broadcasting it to your listeners.
