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Mr. Bush, Have You Ever?

By Thomas Ayala

Good afternoon. My name is Thomas Ayala—and this is my friend and fellow veteran Marty Smith. We represent a registered student organization here on campus called Iraq Veterans Against the War.

We demand three things: The immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq; reparations to the Iraqi people for the destruction and corporate pillaging of their country, and full health care benefits for all returning veterans. We are here today to oppose Bush's unjust and illegal wars against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Four years ago this week, President Bush sent US soldiers, sailors and Marines into Iraq to fight a war of choice—a war of choice!—against a country and its people who had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11. Not one hijacker on September 11th was from Iraq, yet Bush lied to the American people and to the world by falsely connecting the Iraqi people with the terrible acts that happened that year. Let me be clear: Bush lied to us!

Now he's doing the same thing to Iran and following the same old pattern: scaring the people of the United States with the threat of a nuclear attack by a rogue nation. It's the same old song and dance, a smoke and mirrors routine in order for Bush to spread his crusade against Muslims even further across the Middle East. Will this man ever stop?

Last November, the American people spoke louder than ever before when they threw out the Republicans and voted to end the war in Iraq. But what does Bush do with that message? I'll tell you what he did.

He did the opposite of what the American people demanded: to bring the troops home.

He did the opposite of what the Baker Hamilton report recommended: he threatened Iran and Syria with military action.

He did the opposite of what military generals advised: he chose a Vietnam-like escalation of violence. Right now, all across this country fathers, mothers, students, employees, regular people from across the country are being activated from the national guard and reserves for involuntary service against the struggling people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

But I'll tell you who is not going: George Bush will not be out there fighting on the front lines. He'll be in the White House having steak and lobster for dinner. Bush is willing to send other people's sons and daughters off to war, but he skipped out on his own National Guard duty, and got deferments to avoid Vietnam.

I'll tell you who else is not going into Iraq: Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney received 5 deferments from the military so he wouldn't have to fight in Vietnam, yet he wants to send more Americans to their deaths in Iraq.

I'll tell you who else isn't going to Iraq: former and current Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, Ivy League graduates who run the war—however poorly—from air conditioned offices while eating catered gourmet sandwiches and drinking mocha lattes.

As of last night, there were 3,201 dead US soldiers from the Iraq war and another 373 in Afghanistan. It is estimated that upwards of 500,000 Iraqis have been killed in the violence. 22,000 US soldiers have been injured. Some lost arms and legs and eyes. And when those injured troops come home, do they receive adequate medical and mental health treatment? No! They receive sub-standard care because Bush doesn't provide adequate funding for VA hospitals.

Eddie Ryan, a US Marine who suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in Iraq and who can no longer care for himself, spent four months in Walter Reed Hospital. While there, he sat in his own feces and got bedsores because of a lack of nurses to treat all the patients. Cockroaches crawled under his bed and mold infested the walls of his room. There is no money to treat the heroes of war, yet Bush continues to pour money into the military industrial complex to develop the latest satellite-guided bombs or, as was announced last week, new nuclear missiles to replace the current fleet. Mr. Bush, sir, where are your priorities?

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gates didn't go to war themselves because war is hell. War is designed by elite Ivy School graduates but carried out by the working class and minorities. War is dirty and sweaty and bloody and nauseating and confusing and traumatic; it's not for pampered politicians.

I have some questions I want Mr. Bush to answer:

Mr. Bush, have you, sir, ever smelled the burning flesh of a child whose home was just demolished by a two thousand pound bomb?

Have you, Mr. Bush, ever seen a man's head split open from the bullet of an M16 or an AK47?

Have you, Mr. Bush, ever seen body parts—arms and legs and eyes and toes and brains, spread across city streets?

Have you, Mr. Bush, ever seen your buddy's flesh ripped from his body by a road side bomb?

Have you, Mr. Bush, ever secured a helicopter crash site, where the bodies of a half dozen men lay inside the wreckage, soon to be sent home in flag-draped coffins to grieving widows?

All this and more, for what? For what, Mr. Bush? Please tell me exactly what it is you've accomplished by starting this war? Death, destruction and misery, those are the only things you've accomplished.

The only way this man is going to stop this war is if we make our voices heard loud and clear: we will not tolerate any more of this racist and unjust war! This war is one of ideology and corporate greed at the expense of American men and women and Afghan and Iraqi people—and US credibility in the eyes of the world.

Too much is at stake! We must act now! End the war! Bring the troops home!

Troops home now! Troops home now! Troops home now!