Letter to Congress

Excerpts from a letter that a Military Families Speak Out member wrote to her elected officials about this National Support the Troops day/moment of silence (I received in MFSO email, writer not identified) :

"I am writing in reference to the resolution passed by the House and Senate last week supporting a “National Moment of Silence”, which asks for a moment of silence to honor the sacrifices of our troops.

As a member of a military family whose son has made this sacrifice you seek to honor, I can not help but point out to you that our troops and their families have already experienced three long years of silence with no honor from our representatives in Congress.

Most members of Congress have remained silent about the horror of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal... When only rank and file soldiers were accused of crimes at Abu Ghraib, and none of the commanders and Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld, who oversaw and authorized the torture were accused, you remained silent.

When our sons and daughters, and husbands and wives went without life-saving clothing and equipment in Iraq, most remained silent. When vehicles were not armor-plated against IED’s you remained silent. When even simple things like batteries for night vision goggles and radios for communication were not provided, except by terrified parents and friends, you kept silent.

The list of chilling and heartless silences can seem endless to angry and deeply disappointed military families. There was no outraged response from Congress when the commander-in-chief taunted and dared insurgents to “bring em on” to kill our soldiers.... No concern when the Bush administration impugns military families’ patriotism when they dare to bring up uncomfortable basic facts about this war, no concern that thousand upon thousand of innocent Iraqis have been killed, that contractors continue to reap fortunes on the backs of the American people. Congress remains almost completely silent regarding the destruction of Iraq, the lack after three years of basic water and electricity, lack of oil for Iraqis’ cars, no sewage, few jobs.

May I make some suggestions for authentic ways of honoring the service of my soldier-son? Instead of a moment of silence designed to make Congress feel better, how about each and every member of Congress making regular visits to the wounded soldiers you sent to war? How about assigning a specific staff member to help soldiers in their districts with VA benefits and to monitor how they are doing with employment opportunities when they get home? How about asking the soldiers who have been to Iraq for their assessments of what we should be doing to get out, instead of blindly following the arrogant and incompetent draft-avoiders who sent them there?

And finally, how about honoring our troops by taking positions and voting, not based on your re-election chances, but based on conscience and decency and honor, those values our thousands of troops have consistently displayed for three years and which they see all too rarely from the Congress who sent them to Iraq."