Stars and Stripes letters, dedicated to Rumsfeld and Bush, from the heart

Thanks, Secretary Rumsfeld

I’d like to extend a hearty thank you to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the pending 120-day extension of our troops in Iraq. After all, what’s 120 days, really? For our family, it’s four birthdays (again), Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (again), our wedding anniversary (again), and the Fourth of July, which is what service is all about for a lot of military families.

I thank Secretary Rumsfeld for all of his talk about not overburdening families and soldiers. One year of their lives on the line, worrying daily about their safety, couldn’t possibly be enough to “overburden” us.

Thanks from our children, who apparently don’t need a father present, who cry when Mommy’s time is not enough for the four of them, who were counting the days until Daddy could hold them on his lap.

Thanks for betraying our trust by telling us one year “boots on the ground” and changing it at your discretion. Thanks for making the small percentage who agree with this sound like the majority. Thanks for not sending help in the form of more troops last spring when soldiers were dying, but keeping our soldiers there for extra time this spring.

Thanks for the lies you spew about how things are not so bad and we don’t need more troops, all the while keeping 1st Armored Division troops there. You’re obviously saying one thing and doing another. Thanks for using the excuse of these troops’ experience to do so. When they kept control last year, they went in with the same experience as the new units have now. Thanks for not bothering to come to Germany, face the family members, answer our questions and put faces with your numbers.

The next thank you should come from President Bush this November, when John Kerry is elected president because of the lies Secretary Rumsfeld told. The final thanks will be from whoever has to rebuild our Army’s strength when my husband and many others refuse to re-enlist.

I support our troops. I love my husband. We should not have to choose the Army or family. We should be able to trust that we can have Army and family.

Jessica Moretz
Giessen, Germany

Supports troops, not mission

I just read the article “Dempsey: Logical for 1st AD to stay in Iraq” (April 9). I take issue with Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey saying that, “Moreover, the division’s soldiers and their families have invested too much, made too many personal sacrifices in support of this mission, to see it risked at such a critical time.”

As a family member, an American, and a spouse of a currently deployed soldier with the 1st Armored Division, I have never supported this mission. I have always supported our troops. I have always supported the Afghanistan mission, which seems to have taken a distant backseat at the moment. The Iraq mission was a farce from the beginning, created by a right wing, egocentric group called the Bush administration.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney have been dreaming for decades of a pre-emptive strike. That’s their philosophy. The problem I see with taking pre-emptive measures is that if your intelligence isn’t rock solid, you run the risk of striking the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, America “elected” the perfect puppet for them to carry out their dream. They abused Americans’ renewed trust in our government by using the backdrop of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedies.

I’ll never accept any reason for the Bush administration’s decision to snow Congress and the American public with their inaccurate information regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. That was an incredibly cruel thing to do to all of us. I remember how terrified we all were when our troops were sent in there with their gas masks. I say shame on our present administration.

If this mission fails, let it be a lesson to our country and to the world that we’ve all heard before — pride comes before a fall. Our way of life is not the right way everywhere simply because we believe it should be. We have seen countless examples where this belief has failed throughout history. In fact, our government can be blamed for several of these examples.

The current administration has allowed far too many troops to be injured and killed already because of their lies and disinformation, and for that they should pay dearly. Saddam Hussein was a harsh dictator, but he certainly knew how to keep order in his country. We had absolutely no business going to Iraq when we did. It appears to me that we haven’t the slightest idea how to get out now, and that’s not the fault of our hard-working, overextended troops.

I know where the blame lays, and they’ve cried “wolf!” too many times now for me to believe a thing they say. So I say to Maj. Gen. Dempsey, in the future, if you think you speak for all family members, please think again, sir.

Paula Gaskell
Hanau, Germany

Let them come home

My name is Hollie Mitchell. I’m the wife of a soldier in the 1st Armored Division, 1-501 Aviation, stationed in Iraq. We’re based out of Hanau, Germany. My husband was due to come home next week after serving a year in Iraq. He was on his way home when his unit was told to turn around and go back to Iraq.

After a year of nervous waiting and living without my husband, we’ve been looking forward to April 2004 with great anticipation. He left for Iraq on April 29, 2003. We were told he could be gone for 365 days. The welcome home parties have all been planned, and some of the troops from the unit are already back in Germany. I am four months pregnant, a gift my husband left for us when he was on rest and recuperation leave in December. Now I’ve been told at the last minute that the day I’ve been looking forward to for a year was just a tease.

This is the kind of reward the Army is giving its soldiers and family members. They have ripped our hearts out. We have given up a year of our lives and were expecting to be with our loved ones this month. Instead, they slap us in the face and tell us it will be up to another 120 days, which they think sounds better than four more months.

These soldiers have lived in substandard living conditions, put their lives on the line every day and been separated from their families for a year now. It’s time to return them home. They have replacements in Iraq. They’re very tired and worn out, mentally and physically. They need to come home. Morale is at an all- time low.

Imagine being separated from one’s family for a year and living under great stress. Then a week before returning, on the way home, you’re told that you’ll be staying for another four months. That’s a total of 16 months away, working under very high stress levels every day of that 16 months, except for two weeks of rest and recuperation. This is irrational to ask of anyone, let alone the men and women who serve this country.

The children who were expecting their fathers home are now crying and wondering where they are. The wives, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers were all expecting them home. The soldiers were expecting to come home. Let them come home.

Publicity is the only thing that politicians listen to. We can’t sit and be quiet and take this laying down. The promises have to stop being broken. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have to start living up to their word. They said our troops would be home in a year. Now they’ve changed that to 16 months. When is this going to end?

Hollie Mitchell
Hanau, Germany


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=21574

Chimpy said "Help is on the way!" for the military....

Amazing heart felt letters from good Americans whose lives are being ripped apart by Shrubco...Thanx for posting!!!

From the first letter:

>>"We should not have to choose the Army or family."

What do they think war means? This is exactly what war means. Ugly choices, ugly consequences.

It's what people *used* to mean when they said things like "war is hell", or "war must only be the last resort." Too many people, even those in military families, seem to have forgotten just what the hell a war is.

By Nov., hopefully most of America, which supported the war in Iraq, will be saying the same thing, i.e., "we should not have to choose war or social security."

What do Americans think war means? A bit of oyster phlegm?

That's delusion for you.

Still got the runs, actually.