- "There are only two things we should fight for-"
US Marine, Smedley Butler
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 On any given Sunday, you can go to the
beach in Santa Monica, and see a memorial to those US soldiers who died
in Iraq. Arlington West, the memorial is put up and taken down every Sunday
by volunteers. Indeed, on Memorial Day, a crowd gathered at the Santa Monica
pier to hear decorated US Marine veteran, Ron Kovic, speak about the significance
of the war. Ron compared Iraq to Vietnam, drawing parallels as he grew
increasingly heated.
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- That day on the beach a visitor could inhale the heady
fragrance of the sea, view the beautiful young girls, and hear the children
play. They could also view flag shrouded caskets and facsimile crosses,
neither of which we ever see on the nightly news.
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- Some might say these four thousand died for our freedoms,
but many more would say they died for a massive and continuing lie. From
cradle to grave without savoring life along the way. No laughing little
children to embrace them, No wonderful wives to stand beside them. No parents
to honor and make them proud. No glorious beach girls to welcome them home
with open arms and legs, no flowers to smell, no surf to frolic in, no
LIFE to enjoy, all because some shriveled old men in Washington wrenched
that life away and scratched 'duty' on their headstones.
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- All this I thought while gathering the crosses at the
end of the day, reflecting on the names and faces of the dead. Pedro, Patrick,
Roberto, Ryan, Chris and Gary. The day was beautiful, sunny and poignant,
a day these thousands, and their families, would have enjoyed.
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- The war, based on fraudulent, 'sexed up' intelligent
reports, has left us with five years of war porn. Debased US politicians,
whores basically, either too cowardly or traitorous to face the truth,
raped and pillaged two countries while mouthing words like democracy or
freedom.
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- This letter is addressed to all those vets who decided,
for one reason or another, to become spokesmen and women for the continued
occupation of Iraq. Vets For Freedom, one group calls itself. Maybe you've
seen them on TV. Earnest young veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, the group
is effective and their message clear. "The surge is working-Now let's
finish the job."
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- The pro-occupation website, Vets for Freedom, proclaims:
"This week, we urgently need all Vets for Freedom members to write
a short letter or email to their Members of Congress, asking them to fund
the troops-without timelines or deadlines for defeat."
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- Without timelines or deadlines. Enduring bases, enduring
losses, enduring crosses, and a hundred, or even a thousand years, of occupation,
as casually mentioned by John McCain. Perhaps we can thank Jerome Corsi
and T. Boone Pickens, backers of the Swift Boat vets, for giving the VFF
a blueprint to follow. Recall that Corsi and Pickens, neither of whom
served, dared to smear a decorated US veteran. Thus far, the Vets For Freedom
simply state their case for continued occupation; US troops as heavily-armed
cops on the worldwide block, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
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- What ever happened to "Mission Accomplished?"
Wasn't this illegal war over long ago? Indeed, didn't former US Senator
Mike Gravel say recently Bush should be sent to The Hague for war crimes?
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- When I listen to any veteran, no matter how earnest,
no matter how patriotic, tell me that continued occupation of a sovereign
nation that never attacked us is a good and noble idea, I have to question
that soldier's common sense. Not question his loyalty or patriotism or
courage, but question his rationale and rightness.
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- "There are only two things we should fight for,"
wrote US Marine veteran and author Smedley Butler, twice awarded the Medal
of Honor. "One is the defense of our homes, and the other is the Bill
of Rights." I doubt any US veteran, boasting of his wartime exploits
and self-sacrifice, can argue with the author of War is a Racket.
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- I would like to ask any of the Vets For Freedom what
freedoms exactly they are fighting for? The freedom of the Iraqis to ask,
no demand, we leave? Guess not. The freedom of the American taxpayer not
to fund this illegal and immoral war? The freedom of a parent to sue George
Bush, Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld for the loss of their son or daughter?
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- I didn't think so.
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- And what exactly is the mission? Anybody know? Make the
world safe and profitable for Exxon-Mobil stockholders? Mission Accomplished!
Recruit future fanatics bent on revenge? Mission Accomplished! Add another
million Iraqis to the roll of homeless refugees? Mission Accomplished-twofold!
Spread DU over another segment of the population and landscape? Threaten
Syria, Pakistan and Iran with the same dreadful nightmare under the presidency
of Bomber McCain or Barack Obama? Waste even more inflated US dollars
on the quagmire of Iraqnam, as this American empire of ours teeters on
the brink of disaster?
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- Former Conservative Republican and outspoken patriot,
Karl Schwarz wrote: "At dinner one night, I was meeting with a US
Army major who was having a very deep battle of the conscience. Even someone
trained to kill as a profession has a conscience and usually weighs the
issues of right versus wrong, legal versus criminal, just versus evil This
person was stationed at Landstuhl, Germany at the Landstuhl Regional Medical
Center. I was shocked to learn that many US troops have been delivered
to Landstuhl on life-support due to a 'mystery' pneumonia. Many of them
died at Landstuhl or were dead when they arrived (DOA)...still plugged
into life support. They were not part of the official KIA stats in Iraq...by
order of Bush and Rumsfeld. I was shocked to learn that many US troops
also have chronic problems with DVT, or deep vein thrombosis, after they
were given 'vaccines' MANY US troops have died or suffered major health
setbacks due to heart attacks, strokes or pulmonary embolisms due to blood
clots caused by DVT I was further shocked to learn that many of our troops
are diagnosed at Landstuhl as having a rare disorderfrom 250,000 to 500,000
US soldiers could now have it The biggest shock of all was learning that
vast numbers of our troops are now confirmed as having been exposed to
Depleted Uranium (DU) with often extremely heavy concentrations of it found
in their blood and body organsmillions of our soldiers now have ruined
health and ruined lives. But, what really stunned me and broke my heart
the most was something else this US Army major disclosed to me. Landstuhl,
as the MSM told us, was receiving injured from the Iraq and Afghanistan
"theater of operations" where the US was claiming so many successes.
However, it was ALSO receiving wounded from places like Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and TajikistanThis major showed me a DVD of photos
from the triage, operating rooms and ICU. I have never in my life seen
such horrible photos and I do not have a weak stomach."
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- A conservative estimate of the war-related deaths in
the Middle East would probably exceed 10-20 thousand, perhaps more. Who
knows? The Pentagon, by their own admission, doesn't do body counts.
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- Author of The
World's Foremost Terrorist - The US Government,
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- Schwarz added: "Most of our US soldiers have very
strong sense of duty, but they also have very strong senses of right versus
wrong and they have good instincts to see wrong for what it is. In their
hands are matters of life and death, and they do not take that as lightly
as the arrogant bastards in Washington, DC."
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- Later that US Major said: "The US Army or Marines
cannot tell you the truth, lest they want to face court martial and spend
the rest of their life in Leavenworth. As for me, I am no longer concerned
about making grade to colonel or general. I am resigning my commission
and getting out of this web of lies and evil. I can no longer serve this
nation and what it really stands for and what is does and will not tell
America."
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- So what I want to know from my fellow veterans, and especially
those prepared to vote for either candidate: What exactly does the war
in Iraq have to do with the US Constitution or the Bill of Rights?
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- Longtime war critic, US veteran and historian, Douglas
Herman penned the classic account of a historic Civil War battle, Gods &
Generals--and Memories and lives near Bullhead City.
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