If we can all agree that the Iraq War was a huge mistake then can we agree that all the things that came out of this time period was a mistake too? Most of us agree that Gitmo and torture was a mistake too. But do we have to continue with the mistake that is the Patriot Act? Do we have to continue with the mistake that is the Department of Homeland Security?

I hope Rachel sees this and reads it on the air.....

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying
Veteran

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War
on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the
4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of
the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of
those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I
am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004
in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter
on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children
who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons
and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my
fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those
veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured
and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers
and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on
behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi
wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war
has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of
egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder
of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and
Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral
consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I
write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I,
and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my
fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle
East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but
in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and,
finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my
fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of
personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your
power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and
die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr.
Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness
were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our
nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be
sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the
garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined
the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at
those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army
to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did
not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not
join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical
weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called
“democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild
Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues.
Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did
not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal
under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting
your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in
U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It
installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented
in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left
Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic,
military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr.
Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded
fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of
9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my
physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the
comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to
defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled
with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of
thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were
sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your
alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of
empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the
inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I
have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and
physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any
politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You,
Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t
murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But
I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of
your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you
will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the
moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who
deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now
ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American
public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

Ms. Rachel-I am a latin single Democrat woman, but even me as a Democrat I get tired of listening to all your negatism you have againt Republicans. Why don't you make your show less of a headache and be impartial, be fair to the American Public and talk about Democrats as well. I don't believe there is a Perfect Party. Just listening to all the bad things you say about Republicans wants me to become part of the Republican party. Your show does gives me a headache. Have a good show and don't be ovbious that you are for Democrat Party. Your show, that I used to Love, should be an informative show to ALL PARTY FOLLOWERS. Let us decide who is wrong or right, don't try to inject your opinion in us.

Israel is a tourist attraction. But just as you may now be visiting the Egyptian Pyramids when your tour guide advises you to duck if you hear bullets whizzing by, it does take the fun out of your site seeing. In fact most of the middle east should put more thought into tourism. The Iraq area could have one of the best museums in the world. It is where true astronomy and the measurement of time was invented. Their advanced mathematics used twelve unique symbols. Which is why all our clocks count to twelve. There is good history and is a much better way of making money.

After reading Tomas Youngs' entry, several things came to mind. I saw your program titled 'Hubris' regarding the Bush administrations marketing of the Iraq war, and I remembered the part where a gentleman said that Colin Powell had come into his office, and said something like, "I wonder what they are going to do when they find out that there are no weapons of mass destruction?" I've thought about that, and I've wondered this, could he have been thinking, "What if they do nothing? THEN what am I a part of?!?" Sherlock Holmes had a case where he turned to Watson and said, "Then there is the curious thing of what the dog did in the night." And Watson answered, "But Holmes, the dog did nothing." And Sherlock answered, "And THAT is the curious thing!" There is an old fable called 'The Kings New Clothes' in which the new clothes, made by a charlatan, claiming to be made of majic material that would expose someone unfitting their station in life if they could NOT see the clothes. When the King presented himself to the admiring throngs, a child shouted out, "The King has no clothes!!" Out of the mouth of babes, and as with the open letter to Mr. W. Bush and Cheney, out of the mouth of vets!

So how DO we respond? As Sherlocks dog in the night, do we do nothing?

We have a congress that has sold its soul to the highest bidder, they pass laws rife with corporate influence. Assault weapons control.........weapons that could, on a small town scale, be called WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, pass a sensible law regarding these guns and their clips..........fat chance. Sensible voters rights legislation, banking reform, for that matter, Dodd/Frank has not EVEN been completed. Lee Hamilton was part of a committee chaired by Liberman trying to unify communications and selecting lead agencies in case of another 9/11 attack.....IT IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING COMPLETED AND HOW MANY YEARS HAS IT BEEN?!? If it happened again today, no one would know who was in charge!!!

And very much like Sherlocks dog, we do nothing. Could Colin Powell have been thinking, "If they do nothing NOW, this democracy has been lost and this will be proof".

Here is what I do, call the congress switch board dial 202-224-3121, that will get you either House or Senate offices, the White House number is 202-456-1111, (go easy on those folks that answer, as they are volunteers). The elected thieves that are stealing your democracy are hoping that you are sleeping, and will do nothing, show your teeth, bite the bloody bastards, they have proved themselves capable of the most egregious acts, and for proof, just look at what they have done. Actions speak louder than words, their actions speak for themselves, ours should be to bite!