To Diane Ibbotson - I am marching tomorrow for your son

[DancingBear]

Diane,

You will probably not understand this, but I need to tell you anyway - I am marching tomorrow for your son.

You made a comment recently that chills me to the bone. You said, "You can't call into question the integrity of the commander in chief without having it call into question the integrity of those under his command." I am here to tell you that not only can you question that integrity, but you must.

I did not not know your son, but I am surmising that he believed he was fighting to save his country. When the President looked us straight in the eye and said Iraq was a threat to The United States your son believed him, and like thousands of others volunteered to defend us. This is the noblest of all acts. It should be seen as such by the citizens, by the military, and most importantly by the President. Two of the three thought it was.

The third member, however, did not. The man who ran from duty when he was called to fight now sends your son off to fight against an enemy that did not exist, and that NEVER attacked the United States. He lied to you, Diane - he lied to you. He told you Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, when every U.N. Weapons Inspection Team said they did not. He sent his own hand-picked man - David Kay - over to Iraq, hoping he would prove the President right. He, too, said Iraq has no weapons. Dick Cheney looked us right in the eye and said they had them, and Donald Rumsfeld said we knew where they were. Bush said Saddam was buying uranium, and Colin Powell lied about mobile weapons factories to the United Nations. Our President even made mention of a mushroom cloud being the result if we did not act against Iraq, and time after time he said Iraq was tied to 9/11, and Saddam was tied to Al-Queda. None of this was true.

Your son, and many others, believed him, because they could not fathom that a president would lie, merely to advance an agenda. As the reasons for war changed, from weapons of mass destruction to removing a dictator to building democracy to whatever this week's lie is, your son and over 1900 others will not be around to hear them. As the war in Iraq turns into another Vietnam, and as others fall alongside your son, myself and millions of others are raising our voices, exposing the lies, and working so that the next time our soldiers put their lives on the line for us they do so for a cause that is just, that is right, and that is honest.

You've been lied to, Diane, and you lost a son because of it. Tomorrow, I and countless others will take to the streets so that the next Forest Jostes will know that his cause is just, and that when he takes the oath to defend this nation against all enemies foreign and domestic that those enemies will not be part of made-up story designed to make the Bush Administration look tough, and that he will not be a pawn in a Halliburton-fueled chess game, where death doesn't matter but profit does.

Fall is coming to the Capitol now - the leaves are slowly turning, giving way to another season. As the leaves die, you will think of your son, and you will cry. If you find it in your heart, think of us as well, for we are fighting for all those sons and daughters who still have countless seasons in front of them. May they live to see them all.

[auntAgonist]

1. march with pride. Thank You !!!

very moving letter.


I'm there in spirit if not in body.

aA