Letters the Troops Have Sent Me.
by Michael Moore
From mailinglist@michaelmoore.com
December 19, 2003
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.
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.
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.
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
"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."
Here's what Specialist Mike Prysner of the U.S. Army wrote to me
"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…"
An Army private, still in Iraq and wishing to remain anonymous,
writes
"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."
Jerry Oliver of the U.S. Army, who has just returned from Baghdad,
writes
"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, (broken down of course) 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
"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?"
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.
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
"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 aggress 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.'
"My son replied `You just don't get it, do you?'
"Here we are...Vietnam all over again."
From a 56 year old Navy veteran, relating a conversation he had with
a young man who was leaving for Iraq the next morning
"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!"
From a 40-year old veteran of the Marine Corps
"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?"
(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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 hospitalsfind 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 Societyhere'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.
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,
blanketsanything 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/.
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.
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 groupyou 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).
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.
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.
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."
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
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