An Open Letter to Congress: The Iraq War

The Iraq war has NEVER made sense.

We were already in a major war and another one would have stretched our military resources to the limit. (which it did).

Gulf War Syndrome had never been addressed and, as I feared, our soldiers are becoming mysteriously ill again.

We did not build up the numbers of our military past peacetime strength before engaging in this war, and we had no strategy to keep the peace.

My husband is a member of the Army National Guard and he is ready to go when and if he is called, but I resent having the threat of deployment hanging over his head for three years. We cannot make any major plans, and three years of limbo is counterproductive. There are many more like us.

I strongly object to having to give up my daughter to this war, even AFTER two Army doctors had pronounced her medically unfit and "undeployable". Instead of being medically discharged, she spent a year in Baghdad and my pleas to the White House and virtually everyone else were ignored. A letter from the White House assured me that I would be referred to the Dept. of Defense. That was in December '03 and I'm still waiting.

Medically unfit soldiers are routinely being sent into battle:

http://www.orgsites.com/ga/save-our-soldiers/

I started this website to call attention to their plight, but I have found that this is an open secret and not many people care. Murderers in our prison system do not deserve such cruel and unusual punishment. Why do we force it upon our soldiers??

A pattern has emerged from the letters I've received from families of medically unfit soldiers:

1. The soldier is examined by a military doctor or doctors, and is found to be medically unfit.
2. The soldier is sent into a war zone anyway, most are in severe pain
3. The solder is denied medical treatment while in combat, at the risk of becoming permanently disabled.
4. The soldier is given pain killers.
5. The solder is told to "suck it up".
6. The soldier is denied access to his/her medical records while in combat.
7. The soldier is given duty that is as heavy as anyone else in combat, even at the risk of harming (or even killing) another soldier by mistake.
8. The soldier who returns home is still denied medical treatment in more than half the cases.

W. Bush once said that Saddam Hussein had to be removed from power because "he tried to kill my daddy". Well, W. Bush tried to kill my DAUGHTER! What do you believe I think about HIM? He has created this impossible situation that forces unfit soldiers into combat while denying them medical treatment. This administration does not care much about our men and women in the armed forces, and even less about the thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens.

The members of our Armed forces are returning-physically and mentally broken. Many who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, instead of being treated, are talked back into combat by military counselors to "face their fears". My daughter won't get help for her own PTSD because she has seen this. The military counselors told her to re-enlist, promising that if she did that she would then get surgery for the condition that rendered her "undeployable".

Some soldiers have lost their means to make a decent living and cannot get help from the government before they lose their houses, their cars, and sometimes their own families. These soldiers are not the responsibility of the non-profit groups, but we love them and we try to help them to the best of our limited means.

Some people are quick to inform us who are the military families, that our loved one signed a contract with the government. In order to have a contract there must be two sides being held to their promises. Keeping that in mind, it's the government that broke the contract. Contracts can't be one-sided.

This war didn't make sense in the beginning; now it makes even less. Please stop this insane war NOW.

Denise Thomas GA Military Families Speak Out
Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition
People Rights Organization of America
giwifegimom@netscape.net