Open Letter to the Government from an AWOL Soldier

[quandary121]

I joined the Army after the towers of New York fell. Swept up in the fervor, I left college to enlist. My country was attacked - I, like many, wanted to defend it.
But here is where a majority of Americans, as well as Politicians have made their largest mistake: Defending your country does not mean destroying other Nations out of and/or for Revenge. But the People bought into the outcry that we must kill to feel better, and the Politicians sang their songs and danced their dances, in an attempt to show who was the most Patriotic of them all!
America stayed fixed to the lies from Fox News (can it really be called "News"?) and we watched the towers fall so many thousands of times until we were all ready to go kill and die for the Eagle and Red, White and Blue.
Though, I will admit, I was angry and young but it didn't take me too long to see that this wasn't about defending America, but creating an entirely new enemy.
It was all there.
It was almost too perfect.
They are of different color.
They speak a different language.
They are a people that have been made to be poor - not a people that are poor; there is a difference.
They follow a strange religion that Americans don't understand! A religion so very similar to Christianity, that - get this - it recognizes almost the same individuals as being Prophets that the Bible does.
They "hate us (you) for our (your) freedom".
They will come here and kill our women and children if we do not go there (and kill their women and children first).
The Administration and all of Its men and women sold it and Americans bought it.
How many people got chills when the American flag was placed there at Ground Zero? Remember when there were so many flags outside of houses, and flag stores ran out of them?
So I went to Iraq and I saw their faces. People that I thought wanted to kill me, and hated me because I was free, brought me into their homes, offered me food and something to drink.
Was the food poisoned? No.
Was it a poor family that could barely afford the food they were offering, but offered it to me without charge or regret? You bet.
I was quickly disillusioned by the military. Senators and Representatives from Congress would come to visit us - and we would be told to get everything clean for the Dog and Pony Show.
We would up the security levels, to make everything look ship-shape. When it was time for the questions and answers portion, we would never be without a question, because the chain of command was always there for us - and thankfully they had come up with the questions we were allowed to ask our Representatives. This is what happens every time someone from D.C. came for a little sight seeing visit. I can only imagine what kinds of shows they put on now.
Long story short, I left Iraq feeling really uncomfortable with America's position in this entire conflict. It didn't feel right. It didn't look right. And after much soul searching and researching, I discovered that it plain out just wasn't right.
It took me a while to finally decide to leave. I wanted to leave prior to invading Iraq, while witnessing the illegal "Shock and Awe" that killed so many innocent people and destroying the infrastructure of the country that we hadn't destroyed from the first bombings in the Gulf War and what wasn't antiquated and useless from the illegal sanctions held over the heads of the every day Iraqi citizen.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/circello

 

[missile]

Once you sign on the dotted line,you belong to Uncle Sam for the required period of service. if you had any sense of honour ,you would have stayed in the service..but no! You're just another coward. No sympathy from this area.

 

[dancing-loon]

Sorry for you, Missile, that you call such a conscientious and courageous person a coward. I'm deeply disturbed about the widespread mentality such as yours. It is not meant as an insult, but rather an expression of loss of understanding on my part.

Quandary, thanks very much for sharing this "Open Letter" with us. This former soldier touched upon a few ugly truths Americans should be ashamed of. But brainwashed people are blind to morality and truth.

 

[quandary121]

Sorry for you, Missile, that you call such a conscientious and courageous person a coward. I'm deeply disturbed about the widespread mentality such as yours. It is not meant as an insult, but rather an expression of loss of understanding on my part.

Quandary, thanks very much for sharing this "Open Letter" with us. This former soldier touched upon a few ugly truths Americans should be ashamed of. But brainwashed people are blind to morality and truth.

Thats ok dancing-loon i cant imagine the stress this guy must have been under and i feel that if you decide that the war your fighting in is un just then what choice do you have but too go AWOL in answer to MISSILE i will put the soldiers own word down .........

I refuse to be a part of a military and Administration that continue to abuse and torture, doesn't recognize the rights of detainees and allows them to be shipped to secret detention facilities for "National Security" purposes; a military that is illegally, based on all U.S. as well as International Law, inside of Iraq; a military that is over extended, under funded in a war with no foreseeable end (because time tables give our enemy a "sense of victory", but how can the enemy have victory when "Mission Accomplished" has been declared?); a military that watches billions of government contracts given to private military outfits, while they run through the streets of Iraq unchecked, and allows soldiers to be poorly equipped and the V.A. poorly funded.; the No Child Left Behind Act and it's policy of making it mandatory for schools to send out the information of all students attending the school to military recruiters, or they are threatened with being cut off from Federal funding (I thought school was a place of
learning, not a place of turning our youth into the:
"(insert Arabic country name here) Veterans Against The War".
This and many other reasons are why I tell you today, I do not recognize any of the warrants that may have been placed upon me. These warrants are merely a way to silence any opposition to this criminal war. I do not support the United States foreign policy and will not be the fool that enforces it.
I also say, this by no way makes me Un-American. I love this country and feel very strongly that it can be saved and that it must be saved.
I say this without a growing ego, but my acts as of now are what the Founding Fathers envisioned and wrote about. This is what Democracy looks like.
Dissent isn't Un-American, it is what Patriotism means.
Patriotism is not blindly following a Flag waver, it is Direct Action.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/circello

 

[quandary121]

The Iraq war is a War of Aggression, led by a cry of "We Will Never Forget"; the famous quote from September 11, 2001. Well, I have something to say for the people of the World and to the People of this Administration, as well as to the members of the U.S. Congress.
We WILL never forget.
We will never forget that the men who hijacked those aircraft on September 11, 2001 were not Iraqi.
We will never forget that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction (W.M.D) when we invaded.
We will never forget that the W.M.D's that Iraq did have years before, were sold to them by the U.S. Government.
We will never forget the millions of Iraqi men, women and children who have suffered through the Dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, The Iraq-Iran War, The Gulf War, Depleted Uranium, Years of Illegal Sanctions, Shock and Awe, "Liberation" from a Tyrant only to find a new Tyrant take his place.
We will never forget the 2 million of Iraqi men, women and children who are now displaced refugees within their own country.
We will never forget the 1.5 million refugees in Syria, the 775,000 refugees in Jordan and the nearly 200,000 refugees in Egypt.
We will never forget the 1 million dead Iraqi men, women and children since March 2003.
We will never forget that nearly 100,000 Iraqis flee the country each month since 2003.
We will never forget the widows, widowers and orphans of those dead.
We will never forget the effects of depleted uranium in American ammunition that litters the countries of the Middle East.
We will never forget the increased infant mortality rate. The sewage on the streets. The sectarian violence that was never in the streets of Iraq until we installed a Pro-U.S. Government.
We will never forget the destruction of Shock and Awe that destroyed Iraq's entire infrastructure.
We will never forget Abu Ghraib.
We will never forget the Lost men and women of Guantanamo Bay and other Secret U.S. Detention facilities.
We will never forget the every day Iraqi that is gunned down at a Traffic Control Point by a tired American teenager.
We will never forget the sounds of Improvised Explosive Devices (I.E.D) directed not at the American soldier, but at American Policy.
We will never forget the Women and Children gunned down at random after an I.E.D. explodes, because they were working the vegetable fields and were frightened and began to run.
We will never forget that War is, in fact, Terrorism. And America is the largest State Sponsor of Terrorism.
We will never forget that the Men, Women and Children of the Middle East may be of the same color as Saddam Hussein, but they do not have his face. They are not him. They do not deserve what they have been made to endure.
And we will never forget that corporations are profiting off of the death and destruction.
We will never forget that Blackwater and other private armies, which are in themselves illegal, are running around the Middle East killing at will - and are left unchecked.
We will never forget amazing photo opportunities with the soldiers, whether its walking through a market in Iraq with security all around you and Apaches in the air, or sitting on the deck of a ship under a "Mission Accomplished" banner.
We will never forget that a majority of the American population want the Occupations to end and we will keep repeating it until you do what you are paid to do - and that is, Listen to the People.
The People are United and I know that attempts will be made to have me appear a fool and soon you will have my grade school photographs, my coloring books, a list of every library book I have ever checked out, and whatever other records these incredibly large and over-funded Secret Agencies compile on Activists in America, but I do not fear you.
You have no moral authority over me.
Or any authority at all.
I do not fear you.
Any of you.
We The People,
United within The Struggle,
James Circello; Iraq Veterans Against The War

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/circello