A Suicide Letter

[AnnInLa]

((If this has been posted previously, then my apologies....happened upon it, and can't get it out of my mind))

from www.freewayblogger.blogspot.com

Like most of you, I get a lot of mail that begins with "send this to everyone you know." For what it's worth, I wrote back to Doug encouraging him to consider condensing his message and using his right to free speech by public signposting. I should've just printed the letter.

I'm publishing it now because he just killed himself.

Spc Douglas Barber: PTSD- Every Soldier's Personal WAR!
1/9/05



By Doug Barber

In the last month I have been working with Jay Shaft, the editor of Coalition For Free Thought in media regarding my experiances in Iraq and since coming home from the war. We have only touched on some of the struggles of being a soldier, however we have not dug deeply into the personal war that Operation Iraqi Freedom has caused for returning soldiers.

Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush do not want to reveal to the American people that this war is a personal war. They want to run the war like a business, and thus they refuse to show the personal sacrifices the soldiers and their families have made for this country.

My thought today is to help you the reader understand what happens to a soldier when they come home and the sacrifice we continue to make. This may be lengthy, it may be short; but no matter how long it is, just close your eyes and imagine a flag drapped coffin.

Inside that coffin is the body of a man or woman who will never get to live their life to the fullest, yet they bore the total cost so that we could live free. Their soul is somewhere else and all we have is their memory which over time will be forgotten by other everts of greater importance. The families of these soldiers have a hole in their hearts that will never be replaced, even though they have pictures and happy memories.

Some families will refuse to believe they are gone, but still their sons and daughters are the heros of a country that sent them to war. This war on terror has become a personal war for so many, yet the Bush Administration does not want journalists or families to photograph the only thing that is left of our soldiers who have died. They do not want the people to remember that image of a flag draped coffin as the last memory this country will ever have of our fallen men and woman.

((not sure how the rule of 4 paragraphs applies here, so I went beyond....since the letter was mailed to freewayblogger for publication...PLEASE GO READ THE WHOLE LETTER, THE ABOVE IS JUST A VERY SHORT PIECE OF THE TOTAL LETTER))

www.freewayblogger.blogspot.com

[ray of light]

1. thank you. Please make sure this gets emailed everywhere!

[byronius]

2. Very Powerful.

[ray of light]

3. need a couple more recommends on this.

[smirkymonkey]

4. Kicked and Recommended

So sad - and some of the idiots who commented on his suicide "as a selfish act" are even sadder.

[NMMNG]

5. Heartbreaking,

And such a senseless death. I'm sure it won't be the last under the Boosh regime, considering the value placed on the lives of soldiers who return from the war injured and/or mentally ill.

I so despise the heartless bastards who are running our country. :grr:

[Time for change]

6. Are you sure that he killed himself?

He didn't really sound that suicidal to me.

Do you think that he could have been killed because of the opinions he expressed? I think that that has happened a lot with this administration.