The following excerpted from a open letter written by Brooke Campbell, whose younger brother was killed in Iraq. Read the whole thing here and watch the television ad she made to plead with Americans not to re-elect Bush.
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Ryan was scheduled to complete his one-year assignment to Iraq on April 25. But on April 11, he emailed me to let me know not to expect him in Atlanta for a May visit, because his tour of duty had been involuntarily extended. “Just do me one big favor, ok?” he wrote. “Don’t vote for Bush. No. Just don’t do it. I would not be happy with you.”
Last night, I listened to George W. Bush’s live, televised speech at the Republican National Convention. He spoke to me and my family when he announced, “I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved.
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This is my reply: Mr. President, I know that you probably still “don’t do body counts,” so you may not know that almost one thousand U.S. troops have died doing what you told them they had to do to protect America. Ryan was Number 832. Liberty was, indeed, precious to the one I lost– so precious that he would rather have gone to prison than back to Iraq in February. Like you, I don’t know where the strength for “such pride” on the part of people “so burdened with sorrow” comes from; maybe I spent it all holding my mother as she wept. I last saw my loved one at the Kansas City airport, staring after me as I walked away. I could see April 29 written on his sad, sand-chapped and sunburned face. I could see that he desperately wanted to believe that if he died, it would be while “doing good,” as you put it. He wanted us to be able to be proud of him. Mr. President, you gave me and my mother a folded flag instead of the beautiful boy who called us “Moms” and “Brookster.” But worse than that, you sold my little brother a bill of goods. Not only did you cheat him of a long meaningful life, but you cheated him of a meaningful death. You are in my prayers, Mr. President, because I think that you need them more than anyone on the face of the planet. But you will never get my vote.
So to whom it may concern: Don’t vote for Bush. No. Just don’t do it. I would not be happy with you.
Campbell is a member of the Band of Sisters, a courageous group of military wives, mothers and family members from around the country who have come together to speak out about the Bush foreign policy and its impact on their lives and families. The Band of Sisters don’t just want their husbands and sons home, they want America to get Iraq right, and they’ve lost faith in George Bush to do that.
C’mon, all you mothers and wives and sisters who, in your hearts, know that sacrificing the men and women you love for this particular was is wrong. Dead wrong.
Bush sent them into the wrong country for the wrong reasons. Insisting that he will “stay the course” doesn’t make it the right course. There were no WMDs. Bush sent our troops to die for his delusions.
The Band of Sisters are taking their message of hope around the United States in the following weeks. General Wesley Clark launched the Band of Sisters tour on September 14 in Green Bay, Wisconsin and over the next month the Sisters will tour the country, visiting battleground states including Iowa, New Hampshire and New Mexico.
The sisters are working closely with General Clark – who will be appearing as a guest at many of the events – to bring the truth to millions of Americans concerned by President Bush