Letter from an Iraq Vet

[Triana]

To corroborate this, I know someone who has done some humanitarian aid in Fallujah and his story matches what Sgt. Bruhns has written below. I KNOW this is nothing DUers aren't aware of but it's something to rub in the faces of bu$hit neocon jockstraps who support the invasion.

THEY haven't been over there, but these people HAVE BEEN THERE. They WENT and saw what's really going on over there. I'm sure Cindy Sheehan knows this too. STAND UP TO THE LIES, folks...that's what Cindy's doing and to me, that's the point of it all, really. We're not going to stand here, silently, and be LIED TO anymore.
_ _ _ _ _

by Sgt. John Bruhns

Following is a letter by Army Sgt. John Bruhns, excerpts of which were read on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) on July 19, 2005.

I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq war. I am not an expert on the vast and wide range of issues throughout the political spectrum, but I can offer some firsthand experience of the war in Iraq through the eyes of a soldier. My view of the situation in Iraq will differ from what the American people are being told by the Bush administration. The purpose of this message is to voice my concern that we were misled into war and continue to be misled about the situation in Iraq every day. My opinions on this matter come from what I witnessed in Iraq personally.

George Bush and his political advisors have been successful in presenting a false image to the American people, that Saddam Hussein was an "imminent" threat to the security of the United States. We were told that there was overwhelming evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed a massive WMD program, and some members of the Bush administration even hinted that Saddam may have been involved in the 9/11 attacks.

We now know most of the information given to us by the current administration concerning Iraq, if not all the information, was false. This was information given to the American people to justify a war. The information about weapons of mass destruction and a link to Osama bin Laden scared the American people into supporting the war in Iraq. They presented an atmosphere of intimidation that suggested if we did not act immediately there was the possibility of another attack. Bush said himself that we do not want the proof or the smoking gun to come in the form of a "mushroom cloud." Donald Rumsfeld said, "We know where the weapons are."

After 9/11, comments like these proved to be a successful scare tactic to use on the American people to rally support for the invasion. Members of the Bush administration created an image of "wine and roses" in terms of the aftermath of the war. Vice President Dick Cheney said American troops would be greeted as "liberators." And there was a false perception created that we would go into Iraq and implement a democratic government and it would be over sooner rather than later. The White House also expressed confidence that the alleged WMD program would be found once we invaded.

I participated in the invasion, stayed in Iraq for a year afterward, and what I witnessed was the total opposite of what President Bush and his administration stated to the American people.

MUCH MORE...


http://www.antiwar.com/orig/bruhns.php?articleid=6902

[renate]

1. kick

:kick:

[JDPriestly]

2. Thanks. A must read. I forwarded it to ny e-mail list.

It would be great to get this some broad attention on the internet. Please forward it to everyone you know.

[0rganism]

3. kick + nominated

This is the side of the story the press is so very reluctant to tell.

[Just Me]

4. Sgt.,...I salute you giving power to the truth!!!

:patriot: You are providing the greatest and most patriotic service to your people and your country!!! :patriot:

[Just Me]

5. NOMINATED! n/t

[Triana]

11. I feel really bad for this guy and all those like him...

...they went over there in good faith, believing what their gov't told them about the situation, then found the situation to be VERY DIFFERENT once they got there. 1800+ of them did not survive. They were LIED to - sent over there as fodder for oil, profit, and middle east domination and it cost them their lives.

Honestly, I don't know how Cindy keeps her lid on because if it were MY son, I'd be SPITTING NAILS. DOG DAMN those lying thugs.

It just makes me despise (W)easel even more. :mad:

[ooglymoogly]

6. kick n nom

[ray of light]

7. kicked and nominated!

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. thanks!

[Gay Green]

9. Kicked and nominated again!

:kick:

:patriot:

[me b zola]

10. nominated & kicked!!!!!!!!

:kick:

[crispini]

12. Wow. this part is great:

"The invasion was very confusing, and so was the period of time I spent in Iraq afterward. At first it did seem as if some of the Iraqi people were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein. But that was only for a short period of time. Shortly after Saddam's regime fell, the Shiite Muslims in Iraq conducted a pilgrimage to Karbala, a pilgrimage prohibited by Saddam while he was in power. As I witnessed the Shiite pilgrimage, which was a new freedom that we provided to them, they used the pilgrimage to protest our presence in their country. I watched as they beat themselves over the head with sticks until they bled, and screamed at us in anger to leave their country. Some even carried signs that stated, "No Saddam, No America." These were people that Saddam oppressed; they were his enemies. To me, it seemed they hated us more than him.

At that moment I knew it was going to be a very long deployment. I realized that I was not being greeted as a liberator. I became overwhelmed with fear because I felt I never would be viewed that way by the Iraqi people. As a soldier this concerned me. Because if they did not view me as a liberator, then what did they view me as? I felt that they viewed me as foreign occupier of their land. That led me to believe very early on that I was going to have a fight on my hands.

During my year in Iraq I had many altercations with the so-called insurgency. I found the insurgency I saw to be quite different from the insurgency described to the American people by the Bush administration, the media, and other supporters of the war. There is no doubt in my mind there are foreigners from other surrounding countries in Iraq. Anyone in the Middle East who hates America now has the opportunity to kill Americans because there are roughly 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. But the bulk of the insurgency I faced was from the people of Iraq, who were attacking us as a reaction to what they felt was an occupation of their country. "

chilling.....