There are many others to whom Bush owes an answer to the question, "What noble cause are our soldiers fighting and dying for?" Back in June, 2004, when "only" 900 soldiers had died in Iraq, Danielle Green, a female U.S. soldier who is now an amputee due to injuries sustained in Iraq, in an interview said:
"...It was like I was a sitting duck. But that's the way it is a lot of the time over there. You want to trust the Iraqis - some are such nice people - but you know you'd better not, even the children. You just never know. And they just don't want us there...Green said she had been disappointed in her tour of duty in Iraq. I thought we were going for humanitarian reasons, like building things up and cleaning the neighborhoods up - it's filthy over there," she said. "But we hardly did any of it. We spent a lot of time just doing nothing. Looking back, I personally don't think we should have gone into Iraq," she added. "Not the way things have turned out. A lot more people are going to get hurt, and for what?"
This soldier is not the only one who has been asking questions. Read on...
Also in June, 2004, a soldier sent the following e-mail to Military Families Speak Out, who posted it on their
website:
Everyday, soldiers all over Iraq roll outside of their barbed wire perimeters and go out to look for trouble. The problem is that the soldiers usually find it. It is to go unsaid that not only do we face stressful situations from within our own organization, but from outside our camps as well. On a day to day basis we concern ourselves with death by IED (Improvised Explosive Device). Every soldier dreads these phantom killers found on the side of the road. Unfortunately, 9 out of 10 times they are not found until they explode into someone's windshield. Of course we also worry about ambushes, another one of the insurgents' favorite pastimes. At the time of attack, the sound of bullets passing by your ears and rocket propelled grenades exploding in front of you hypes you up on adrenaline. However, after the initial attack, when given the chance to think it over, you dwell on how close you came to being sent home in twenty pieces, and how it looked to cut an Iraqi militant in half with a .50 caliber machine gun.
The concerns for personal safety and that of your comrades are too many to ponder, but not enough that they can't subconsciously float through your head during a patrol. You find yourself wondering, "What hand could I live without?", or, "Would it be worth living as a burned up vegetable for the rest of my life?" I myself have determined thatIi could live happily the rest of my life as long as I had my eyes and ears, so I could see and hear the beauty. It's a lot to lay on an 18 year old kid who is fresh out of high school, like some of my friends are, but to others in our mid-twenties, like myself, the whole thing is just weird and disgusting. It's hard to fight in a war that you cannot in good faith support, to fight for an army that involuntarily extended your departure from the war machine, and to fight for the cheap and greedy values that started this bloody debacle. More importantly, i simply could not imagine the pain i would be inflicting on my family by not coming home alive.
It's tough to describe the stress level of being involved in this war in Iraq. Eventually one gets used to having his/her life endangered 14 times a day, and the sounds of mortar rounds hitting the camp only makes for a humorous situation. It has been said that war is hell, who could not agree with that? However, of all the hopelessly stressful aspects of our lives here, at least we DON'T have to worry about those pesky threats of instant and painful death that weapons of mass destruction can afford. There's something we can be thankful for, one less atrocity to worry about.
Stop this madness. Stop this war.
hEkLe
Baquba, Iraq
Here's another letter from a soldier in the Summer of 2004:
The unit I'm assigned to has just been informed that we've been extended once again. We were 48 to 96 hours away from flying home after being in Kuwait and Iraq for almost exactly one year. I've served our country and the Army for 26 years. It would have been 35 years except that I took a nine-year break in service. I've seen 13 months in the demilitarized zone in Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division, a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, and 35 months in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division when the Berlin Wall was still dividing that country.
My main concern and outrage is that our coalition leadership has waited this long to attempt to take control of Fallujah and the other hot spots in Iraq. Months ago when numerous attacks began on our aviation units, motor transport units and others, I said this was what needed to be done to take control of those towns and root out the enemy.
It seems to me that we evidently have no general staff officers in the coalition forces of a higher echelon who served in Vietnam. If there are, they more than likely were in the rear echelon and saw action only from a stool in a bar on Tu Do Street in Saigon. The lives of too many good people have been lost on both sides because of the inaction of those who could have taken action months ago.
I also place the blame on the Pentagon and the Department of Defense, which more than 20 years ago said that we could afford to close military bases, downsize the military, and still handle two separate conflicts throughout the world successfully. Which one of them should get the biggest slice of humble pie to eat?
Those leaders who could have taken action before now who wear the Vietnam Service Ribbon and Vietnam Campaign Medal should strip themselves of them, because they have evidently forgotten. I haven't! For my part, I just hope that the nightmares and the crawling out of bed stalking my prey while still sound asleep, causing my wife to worry about my sanity, don't return.
On all of my past tours of duty, myself and others were informed of when we'd return home to our families. This tour of duty was promised to be only 365 days in country. My unit has done 359 days as of this writing. This has been just another promise in the dark. May God have mercy on us, as he's the only one right now who probably will.
Staff Sgt. Walter Larsen
Camp Virginia, Kuwait
In March, 2004, another soldier sent the following e-mail to Military Families Speak Out, who posted it on their website:
Hello Out There,
A friend told me about this site. I am a soldier of the 2-63 AR 1st Infantry Division. I am stationed near Baqubah at FOB Scunion. I see the horrors of this war everyday. I have friends who are returning never to walk or see or listen to his favorite song again. I have friends who will not be coming home at all. I have seen innocent people killed and others humiliated. I have watched kids straight out of highschool blown apart by roadside explosions and RPGs.
I see no end to this unless Americans take a stand. We create more enemies the more violence we bring to this country. How do the heartfelt words of so many turn into action? Where does the battle for my freedom from this war take place? When can I come home? Bush can ignore a web page as he ignore an entire election. How do we get results from these letters? If I boycott I go to prison after a long year of put this desert sand into plastic bags. What do I do now?
Hands bound,
Name Withheld
Back in March, 2004, when there were "only" 600+ U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, Jill Kiehl, the wife of a soldier killed in Nassiriya, was interviewed:
Widow of Soldier in Jessica Lynch Unit Blasts Bush
Tue Mar 23, 5:36 PM ET Add U.S. National - Reuters to My Yahoo!
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...=1896&ncid=1473
By Jim Forsyth
CENTER POINT, Texas (Reuters) - At a ceremony on Tuesday marking the one-year anniversary of the Iraqi attack on Pvt. Jessica Lynch's Army unit, the widow of a soldier who died in the fight blasted President Bush (news - web sites) for "lying to America" to justify the Iraq (news - web sites) war.
In bitter comments beside the grave of Army Specialist James Kiehl, widow Jill Kiehl accused Bush of fabricating reasons to launch the invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
"The evidence that's starting to come out now feels like he (Bush) was misleading us," Kiehl said, holding the couple's 10-month-old son Nathaniel, born seven weeks after his father died.
"It's almost as though he had things fixed so it would look like he needed to go to war," she said.
James Kiehl, a 22-year-old computer engineer, was one of 11 members of the 507th Maintenance Company killed when their convoy took a wrong turn at Nassiriya in southern Iraq on March 23, 2003 and were attacked by Iraqi fighters.
Seven others were captured, including Lynch, who was held for nine days before U.S. troops rescued her from a hospital.
Several members of the unit, not including Lynch, attended the ceremony in Center Point, 35 miles northwest of San Antonio.
Jill Kiehl described herself as "bitter" about Bush's decision to declare war on Iraq.
"It's upsetting that he (Bush) would have lied to America to get what he wanted," Kiehl said.
"In a way, it's like he used people. That's how I feel. I think the reasons for going over there were bogus and misleading."
Bush justified the invasion on grounds that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was linked to Al Qaeda, the Islamic extremist group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. So far, no such weapons have been found and little evidence of Al Qaeda connections has turned up.
Sue Niedermeier, the mother of a solider killed in Iraq spoke out in response to an interviewer's questions about WMDs not being found in Iraq:
Q: What is your response to the recent evidence that this war was waged on the basis of "misinformation"?
A: I wanted to rip the president's head off. Curse him, yell at him, call him a self righteous bastard and a lot of other words. I think if I had him in front of me I would shoot him in the groined area. Let him suffer. And just continue shooting him there. Put him through misery, like he's doing to everyone else. He doesn't deserve any better.
Mike Huffman, an Iraq War Veteran who co-founded Iraq War Veterans against the War, posted the following "Open Letter" on several veterans and military websites in the Spring 2004:
To My Fellow Troops in the Iraq War
Being in today's military can be a very tough thing, a feeling that is even worse when you don't believe in what you are fighting for.
I was in that situation a year ago when I was in Iraq with the 1st Marine Division.
I knew the war I was fighting in was wrong but I didn't see myself as having much choice. I knew that as soon as I left the Middle East I would make my feelings known and that is something I have done.
The greatest surprise to me since then is that people have actually listened to me.
People really want to hear what I have to say about the war. Average people want to hear my thoughts and experiences, both good and bad.
The country isn't divided like we see in the news. Not everyone is for or against the war. Many people still don't know how they feel about what is going on in Iraq. The voice of someone who has served there carries more weight then you could ever imagine.
I've changed someone's perspective on the war any number of times simply sitting on a barstool next to them and talking about what I know.
So now you might be asking how you can actually make your voice heard. I know for those of you in the service sounding off is much harder then for the recent veterans like myself, but you can still speak out.
All of us, veterans, reservists, National Guard and active duty, can side with Military Families Speak Out, Veterans For Peace, and other folks standing up to stop the senseless killing of Americans and Iraqis. Those of us with direct experience in this disastrous occupation need to make our voices heard. Active duty troops don't even have to "speak" yourselves. Just letting those of us who are now out know that you side with us lends weight to our cause and speaks volumes.
Imagine walking up to George Bush and saying that there are 100, 200, 300, 1000, 5000 or more participants from his "War on Terror" who oppose the US occupation in Iraq.
That's the kind of force that can end this war, just like it did in Vietnam. Together we can end this occupation and save the lives of our fellow American servicemen and women.
Michael Hoffman
Veteran, USMC 2nd Marine division, Artillery
Served with 1st Marine Division in 2003 invasion of Iraq
These are just a few of the letters, interviews, and comments out there. There are many more, all over the web. I've also got many achived at my old blog on General Clark's website - http://armymom.forclark.com/
Military members, families, and veterans have been speaking out against this war. It took a mom in a ditch in Crawford to get most Americans to listen.
