Salon: "Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush, you are responsible"

[kskiska]

An open letter from the wife of a soldier who lost his leg in Iraq.

Dear President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld,

My husband, David Pettigrew, lost his right leg in Iraq on July 7, 2003. During a night patrol with his unit in the Army's 4th Infantry Division, an RPG round struck his Bradley fighting vehicle. The armor-penetrating round -- which, according to faulty U.S. intelligence, the enemy wasn't even supposed to have -- tore straight through his leg and lodged in the opposite wall of the vehicle.

The next two months of my life were spent at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, at my husband's side in Ward 57. We were in the same room where Pvt. Jessica Lynch had gotten some treatment.

(snip)

Secretary Rumsfeld, my husband and I met you at Walter Reed. You asked my husband only three questions and asked none of me. It wasn't even a conversation. You wanted to know how David got hurt, whether anyone else was hurt with him, and whether his unit got the guys that did it. You did not ask if David needed anything or if there was anything that you could do to help. Both Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, and Anthony J. Principi, the secretary of veterans affairs, gave David their cards and instructed him to call if there was anything he needed and was not getting. But you were simply speechless. You were in a hurry. It seemed like you almost didn't care. It seemed like you only wanted to know whether the military forces were being efficient.

(snip)

I'm not sure the American public understands that our soldiers are being maimed over there. People hear about our soldiers being wounded, but they're being maimed: They've lost an eye or an arm or a leg. David and I couldn't feel sorry for ourselves over David's injury -- because the guy in the room next to him in the ICU had lost both legs and arms and was permanently blinded.

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http://salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/10/13/open_letter/index.html