Live Fast Die Pretty - a viewpoint

A little letter I whipped up for family and friends. Hope it does some good.

As all of you who are receiving this know by now, I have recently been "stop-lossed". I was supposed to sign out on terminal leave from my unit this morning; now, it'll be at least another year before this happens. I had wanted to wait until I was out of the uniform before saying this, but I can wait no longer. This war that I am about to return to should never have happened.

When I returned to Army service on November 6, 2001, I believed whole heartedly that I was doing the right thing. I believed, and still believe, that the war in Afghanistan was just, and I assumed that that was where I would serve. When, instead, our President decided to invade Iraq, I had my doubts, but I still believed that we were in the right. After all, the President is the Leader of the Free World, surely he has access to information I don't, so if he says Iraq threatens us, it must, right?

Yet, over the past year, we've found no weapons of mass destruction. The only terrorist connection that's stood up is the payments that Saddam gave to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Payments quite similar to those that our "Ally", Saudi Arabia, also doles out. Saudi Arabia, whose royal family has done more to spread Islamist fanaticism than any other group, yet who our President steadfastly clings to. It almost seems as though the Bush family cares more about protecting the interests of a tribe of feudal despots than they do about protecting ours.

Whether you call them "Missteps", "Errors", "Crimes" or "Decisive actions", Bush's deeds have indeed caused great harm to our national interests. He has squandered out moral authority. He has alienated our allies and given aid and comfort to our enemies, by giving millions of people around the world legitimate grievances with us. He has plundered our economy to enrich the elites, while using intolerance to build a power base among the masses. He has used "security" to justify imperialism abroad while attacking liberty at home. He has preached the virtues of the free market while promoting monopolism and shielding powerful corporations from accountability. He has consorted with liars, thieves, corrupt politicians and religious fanatics. He has proven his character with his actions.

John Kerry isn't perfect, by a long shot, but he's a DAMN sight better than the other guy. I'd rather have a leader who "inconsistently" changes his mind when the situation changes, then one who consistently lies. You can't call it an "intelligence failure" either. If the President hadn't pressured the Intelligence Community to accept spurious information from shady sources, there'd never have been enough support for this war to go forward.

But it did. 16,000 civilian casualties. September 11th, five times over. How do you justify that, based on the results? We had no realistic plan in place to stabilize Iraq other than relying on Chalabi's assurances that the Iraqi people would fall over themselves in their rush to greet us. The administration's plan seems to have been limited to "The Iraqis will start behaving once the market opens up and the Invisible Hand sets everything straight!" But here's a news flash: The money that's been spent over there hasn't trickled down to ordinary Iraqis. It's gone to monopolistic no-bid contracts awarded to powerful corporations with a history of malfeasance and corruption.

Over the past year and a half, life for the average Iraqi hasn't gotten any better. No Saddam, but also no reliable electricity, power, or security. If things get much worse, the Iraqi people will gladly welcome a dictator, and as so many people throughout history have done, willingly trade away their potential freedom for stability.

The only decent reason for us to stay in Iraq for one moment longer is because we have a moral obligation to fix the damage caused by this unjustified war. Part of that damage control should be never again trusting the men whose deceit and incompetence led us into it.

Anyone getting this who's planning to vote for Bush, I beg you to reconsider. If you can't bring yourself to vote for Kerry, take the time to find some third party candidate whose platform doesn't bastardize legitimate conservative values with economic piracy and imperialism. If you absolutely must vote for bush, though, I have one final request: If I do die over in Iraq, I ask that my memory not ever be used, in any way, to build support for the policies of this administration and the false conservatives that run it. I would rather be completely forgotten than support in death an agenda I opposed in life.