- As we approach the holidays, I've been thinking a lot
about our kids who are in the armed forces serving in Iraq. I've received
hundreds of letters from our troops in Iraq -- and they are telling me
something very different from what we are seeing on the evening news.
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- What they are saying to me, often eloquently and in heart-wrenching
words, is that they were lied to -- and this war has nothing to do with
the security of the United States of America.
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- I've written back and spoken on the phone to many of
them and I've asked a few of them if it would be OK if I posted their letters
on my website and they've said yes. They do so at great personal risk (as
they may face disciplinary measures for exercising their right to free
speech). I thank them for their bravery.
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- Lance Corporal George Batton of the United States Marine
Corps, who returned from Iraq in September (after serving in MP company
Alpha), writes the following:
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- "You'd be surprised at how many of the guys I talked
to in my company and others believed that the president's scare about Saddam's
WMD was a bunch of bullshit and that the real motivation for this war was
only about money. There was also a lot of crap that many companies, not
just marine companies, had to go through with not getting enough equipment
to fulfill their missions when they crossed the border. It was a miracle
that our company did what it did the two months it was staying in Iraq
during the war?. We were promised to go home on June 8th, and found out
that it was a lie and we got stuck doing missions for an extra three months.
Even some of the most radical conservatives in our company including our
company gunnery sergeant got a real bad taste in their mouth about the
Marine corps, and maybe even president Bush."
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- Here's what Specialist Mike Prysner of the U.S. Army
wrote to me:
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- "Dear Mike -- I'm writing this without knowing if
it'll ever get to you. I'm writing it from the trenches of a war (that's
still going on,) not knowing why I'm here or when I'm leaving. I've toppled
statues and vandalized portraits, while wearing an American flag on my
sleeve, and struggling to learn how to understand. I joined the army as
soon as I was eligible - turned down a writing scholarship to a state university,
eager to serve my country, ready to die for the ideals I fell in love with.
Two years later, I found myself moments away from a landing onto a pitch
black airstrip, ready to charge into a country I didn't believe I belonged
in, with your words (from the Oscars) repeating in my head. My time in
Iraq has always involved finding things to convince myself that I can be
proud of my actions; that I was a part of something just. But no matter
what pro-war argument I came up with, I pictured my smirking commander-in-chief,
thinking he was fooling a nation."
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- An Army private, still in Iraq and wishing to remain
anonymous, writes:
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- "I would like to tell you how difficult it is to
serve under a man who was never elected. Because he is the president and
my boss, I have to be very careful as to who and what I say about him.
This also concerns me a great deal...to limit the military's voice is to
limit exactly what America stands for... and the greater percentage of
us feel completely underpowered. He continually sets my friends, my family,
and several others in a kind of danger that frightens me beyond belief.
I know several other soldiers who feel the same way and discuss the situation
with me on a regular basis."
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- Jerry Oliver of the U.S. Army, who has just returned
from Baghdad, writes:
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- "I have just returned home from "Operation
Iraqi Freedom". I spent 5 months in Baghdad, and a total of 3 years
in the U.S. Army. I was recently discharged with Honorable valor and returned
to the States only to be horrified by what I've seen my country turn into.
I'm now 22 years old, and have discovered America is such a complicated
place to live, and moreover, Americans are almost oblivious to what's been
happening to their country. America has become "1984." Homeland
security is teaching us to spy on one another and forcing us to become
anti-social. Americans are willingly sacrificing our freedoms in the name
of security, the same Freedoms I was willing to put my life on the line
for. The Constitution is in jeopardy. As Gen. Tommy Franks said, 'One more
terrorist attack and the constitution will hold no meaning.'"
-
- And a Specialist in the U.S. Army wrote to me this week
about the capture of Saddam Hussein:
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- "Wow, 130,000 troops on the ground, nearly 500 deaths
and over a billion dollars a day, but they caught a guy living in a hole.
Am I supposed to be dazzled?"
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- There are lots more of these, straight from the soldiers
who have been on the front lines and have seen first hand what this war
is really about.
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- I have also heard from their friends and relatives, and
from other veterans. A mother writing on behalf of her son (whose name
we have withheld) wrote:
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- "My son said that this is the worst it's been since
the "end" of the war. He said the troops have been given new
rules of engagement, and that they are to "take out" any persons
who aggresses on the Americans, even if it results in 'collateral"
damage.' Unfortunately, he did have to kill someone in self defense and
was told by his commanding officer: 'Good kill.'"
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- "My son replied: 'You just don't get it, do you?'"
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- "Here we are...Vietnam all over again."
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- From a 56 year old Navy veteran, relating a conversation
he had with a young man who was leaving for Iraq the next morning:
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- "What disturbed me most was when I asked him what
weapons he carried as a truck driver. He told me the new M-16, model blah
blah blah. Stuff never made sense to me even when I was in. I asked him
what kind of side arm they gave him and his fellow drivers. He explained,
'Sir, Reservists are not issued side arms or flack vests as there was not
enough money to outfit all the Reservists, only Active Personnel.' I was
appalled to say the least. Bush is a jerk, agreed, but I can't believe
he is this big an Asshole not providing protection and arms for our troops
to fight HIS WAR."
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- From a 40-year old veteran of the Marine Corps:
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- "Why is it that we are forever waving the flag of
sovereignty, EXCEPT when it concerns our financial interests in other sovereign
states? What gives us the right to tell anyone else how they should govern
themselves, and live their lives? Why can't we just lead the world by example?
I mean, no wonder the world hates us, who do they get to see? Young assholes
in uniforms with guns, and rich, old, white tourists! Christ, could we
put up a worse first impression?"
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- (To read more from my Iraq mailbag -- and to read these
above letters in full -- go to my website: http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/dudewheresmycountry/soldierletters/index.php)
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- Remember back in March, once the war had started, how
risky it was to make any anti-war comments to people you knew at work or
school or, um, at awards ceremonies? One thing was for sure -- if you said
anything against the war, you had BETTER follow it up immediately with
this line: "BUT I SUPPORT THE TROOPS!" Failing to do that meant
that you were not only unpatriotic and un-American, your dissent meant
that YOU were putting our kids in danger, that YOU might be the reason
they lose their lives. Dissent was only marginally tolerated IF you pledged
your "support" for our soldiers.
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- Of course, you needed to do no such thing. Why? Because
people like you have ALWAYS supported "the troops." Who are these
troops? They are our poor, our working class. Most of them enlisted because
it was about the only place to get a job or receive the guarantee of a
college education. You, my good friends, have ALWAYS, through your good
works, your contributions, your activism, your votes, SUPPORTED these very
kids who come from the other side of the tracks. You NEVER need to be defensive
when it comes to your "support" for the "troops" --
you are the only ones who have ALWAYS been there for them.
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- It is Mr. Bush and his filthy rich cronies -- whose sons
and daughters will NEVER see a day in a uniform -- they are the ones who
do NOT support our troops. Our soldiers joined the military and, in doing
so, offered to give THEIR LIVES for US if need be. What a tremendous gift
that is -- to be willing to die so that you and I don't have to! To be
willing to shed their blood so that we may be free. To serve in our place,
so that WE don't have to serve. What a tremendous act of selflessness and
generosity! Here they are, these 18, 19, and 20-year olds, most of whom
have had to suffer under an unjust economic system that is set up NOT to
benefit THEM -- these kids who have lived their first 18 years in the worst
parts of town, going to the most miserable schools, living in danger and
learning often to go without, watching their parents struggle to get by
and then be humiliated by a system that is always looking to make life
harder for them by cutting their benefits, their education, their libraries,
their fire and police, their future.
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- And then, after this miserable treatment, these young
men and women, instead of coming after US to demand a more just society,
they go and join the army to DEFEND us and our way of life! It boggles
the mind, doesn't it? They not only deserve our thanks, they deserve a
big piece of the pie that we dine on, those of us who never have to worry
about taking a bullet while we fret over which Palm Pilot to buy the nephew
for Christmas.
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- In fact, all that these kids in the army ask for in return
from us is our promise that we never send them into harm's way unless it
is for the DEFENSE of our nation, to protect us from being killed by "the
enemy."
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- And that promise, my friends, has been broken. It has
been broken in the worst way imaginable. We have sent them into war NOT
to defend us, not to protect us, not to spare the slaughter of innocents
or allies. We have sent them to war so Bush and Company can control the
second largest supply of oil in the world. We have sent them into war so
that the Vice President's company can bilk the government for billions
of dollars. We have sent them into war based on a lie of weapons of mass
destruction and the lie that Saddam helped plan 9-11 with Osama bin Laden.
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- By doing all of this, Mr. Bush has proven that it is
HE who does not support our troops. It is HE who has put their lives in
danger, and it is HE who is responsible for the nearly 500 American kids
who have now died for NO honest, decent reason whatsoever.
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- The letters I've received from the friends and relatives
of our kids over there make it clear that they are sick of this war and
they are scared to death that they may never see their loved ones again.
It breaks my heart to read these letters. I wish there was something I
could do. I wish there was something we all could do.
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- Maybe there is. As Christmas approaches (and Hanukkah
begins tonight), I would like to suggest a few things each of us could
do to make the holidays a bit brighter -- if not safer -- for our troops
and their families back home.
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- 1. Many families of soldiers are hurting financially,
especially those families of reservists and National Guard who are gone
from the full-time jobs ("just one weekend a month and we'll pay for
your college education!"). You can help them by contacting the Armed
Forces Emergency Relief Funds at http://www.afrtrust.org/ (ignore the rah-rah
military stuff and remember that this is money that will help out these
families who are living in near-poverty). Each branch has their own relief
fund, and the money goes to help the soldiers and families with paying
for food and rent, medical and dental expenses, personal needs when pay
is delayed, and funeral expenses. You can find more ways to support the
troops, from buying groceries for their families to donating your airline
miles so they can get home for a visit, by going here.
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- 2. Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by our
bombs and indiscriminate shooting. We must help protect them and their
survivors. You can do so by supporting the Quakers' drive to provide infant
care kits to Iraqi hospitals?find out more here: http://www.afsc.org/iraq/relief/default.shtm.
You can also help the people of Iraq by supporting the Iraqi Red Crescent
Society?here?s how to contact them: http://www.ifrc.org/address/iq.asp,
or you can make an online donation through the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies by going here: http://www.ifrc.org/HELPNOW/donate/donate_iraq.asp.
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- 3. With 130,000 American men and women currently in Iraq,
every community in this country has either sent someone to fight in this
war or is home to family members of someone fighting in this war. Organize
care packages through your local community groups, activist groups, and
churches and send them to these young men and women. The military no longer
accepts packages addressed to ?Any Soldier,? so you?ll have to get their
names first. Figure out who you can help from your area, and send them
books, CDs, games, footballs, gloves, blankets?anything that may make their
extended (and extended and extended?) stay in Iraq a little brighter and
more comfortable. You can also sponsor care packages to American troops
through the USO: http://www.usocares.org/.
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- 4. Want to send a soldier a free book or movie? I?ll
start by making mine available for free to any soldier serving in Iraq.
Just send me their name and address in Iraq (or, if they have already left
Iraq, where they are now) and the first thousand emails I get at soldiers@michaelmoore.com
will receive a free copy of "Dude..." or a free ?Bowling?? DVD.
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- 5. Finally, we all have to redouble our efforts to end
this war and bring the troops home. That's the best gift we could give
them -- get them out of harm's way ASAP and insist that the U.S. go back
to the UN and have them take over the rebuilding of Iraq (with the US and
Britain funding it, because, well, we have to pay for our mess). Get involved
with your local peace group?you can find one near where you live by visiting
United for Peace, at:
- http://www.unitedforpeace.org and the Vietnam Veterans
Against War: http://www.vvaw.org/contact/.
- A large demonstration is being planned for March 20,
check here for more details:
- http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2136. To
get a ?Bring Them Home Now? bumper sticker or a poster for your yard, go
here: http://bringthemhomenow.org/yellowribbon_graphics/index.html. Also,
back only anti-war candidates for Congress and President (Kucinich, Dean,
Clark, Sharpton).
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- I know it feels hopeless. That's how they want us to
feel. Don't give up. We owe it to these kids, the troops WE SUPPORT, to
get them the hell outta there and back home so they can help organize the
drive to remove the war profiteers from office next November.
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- To all who serve in our armed forces, to their parents
and spouses and loved ones, we offer to you the regrets of millions and
the promise that we will right this wrong and do whatever we can to thank
you for offering to risk your lives for us. That your life was put at risk
for Bush's greed is a disgrace and a travesty, the likes of which I have
not seen in my lifetime.
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- Please be safe, come home soon, and know that our thoughts
and prayers are with you during this season when many of us celebrate the
birth of the prince of "peace."
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- Yours,
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- Michael Moore
- mmflint@aol.com
- www.michaelmoore.com
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