Soldier's Open Letter to George W. Bush
Monday 5th September 2005

by Michelle J. d'Entremont 2LT, US Army Reserves Engineer Corps
Open Letter to George W. Bush

If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention.George Bush is
going to go down in history as the President Who Destroyed America.

Oh sure, there were problems before he ever took office. Every nation
has problems. But in the year 2000, the USA was at a fairly high
point. The economy was growing. Science was moving forward.
International relations were fairly good. The future looked bright.
And then, an election was rigged, and a "President" who was never
properly elected took office.

We all know how all the different stories about inappropriate
election practices during the 2004 election. The cheating. The
manipulation of the polls. The fact that people from largely Democrat
demographics were prevented from voting. If you don't know about all
this stuff... then you weren't paying attention. We also know that
the 2000 elections were bullsh*t.

But it's too late for that. We got the chimpanzee in the Oval Office,
and we've got to deal with him. Too bad the War-Monger president, who
doesn't even know HOW to run a war in the first place, also doesn't
know how to run a country. The disaster on September 11th, 2001 was
handled very well... not by Bush, but by Rudy, the esteemed former
mayor of NYC.

The only reaction from Bush to the whole fiasco: LET'S GO TO WAR!
But... that's in the past. What about now?

Our country is already hurting financially because of the actions of
our "president", or inactions, as the case might be. Our
international relations are shot to hell - EVERYBODY hates us. The
education system is hurting. Our entire economy is likely to fall
into recession, if not an actual depression to rival the crash of the
1920s.

The average citizen can't even afford gasoline - but if we'd invested
in cars that used non-petroleum fuel sources (a technology we've had
for a couple of decades but never developed) we wouldn't have this
problem in the first place! (Hmm, does anyone else detect a
connection between the oil companies, the government who funds
research, and the car companies?)

The progress of the scientific community is being thwarted by Chimp-
Boy's religious convictions. Bush was too busy "stopping the fags
from destroying our nation" to bother running the nation. I wonder
how much money went into his "Protect Marriage" campaign. How much
money and resources have been spent on a war overseas, when our own
infrastructure needs desperate help?

DID YOU KNOW that Bush wanted to implement a universal health-care
system in Iraq, funded by our own tax dollars, when we don't even
have universal health care here? I don't have health coverage, but MY
MONEY is going to help give medical care to some Iraqi.

THIS IS BULLSH*T!

Now, not all of these things fall solely on the shoulders of George
W. Bush. It's his entire pathetic administration, but he's the man
with the final say. He's the guy who was given all sorts of extra
powers of authority by the Patriot Act. He's the idiot leading the
pack. I'm sorry, "leading" was the wrong word. Leadership is a
quality he doesn't have.

Let's look at the situation we have right now. Our National Guard is
overseas when we need them at home. Yes, they're calling them back
home now, but they should have been here in the first place. People
are dying, in America, of dehydration, hunger, and disease, because
we took too long to respond to an emergency. The US Army can drop a
bomb with pinpoint precision overseas within an hour of receiving
the mission, and they're telling me it took our leaders THREE F*CKING
DAYS to drop food and water on our own soil?

MORE BULLSH*T! American citizens are dying, on American soil. Oh
sure, the "president" went to visit the poor victims, and he hugged
women and girls for the camera, and shook people's hands... what a
wonderful photo opportunity it must have been. But when he climbed
aboard his helicopter to fly to the disaster area, did he even bother
to think of loading a couple of extra crates of water, and maybe some
food, for the victims? I'm sure there was space. And it may not have
helped everybody, but to the family that would have received those
supplies, it could mean the difference between life and death.

Compassionate-conservativism, my f*cking a**.

This whole disaster-relief operation is a textbook example of "too
little, too late." It's a textbook example of SH*TTY LEADERSHIP. All
the way from the bottom up. For the first 24 hours, the mayor of New
Orleans told people he had it under control, and they didn't need
help. Two days later, he's screaming and swearing at people for
not coming sooner. What? Did he think the National Guard just shows
up on its own? You have to ask! We, the soldiers of the Reserves and
Guard, don't sit in our unit headquarters, watching CNN, and say, "Oh
look!A disaster! Let's go!" WE CAN'T. We have to have orders. We need
authorization.

And we need to be requested. And then, what about the governor of
Louisiana? Have we even heard anything from her? She should have
realized that the mayor of New Orleans wasn't seeing the situation
clearly, and acted. But no. And then there's the "president." WHAT
THE F*CK? There has been a failure in EVERY level of our civilian
chain of command. And then there's FEMA. Don't even get me started.

They're running a logistical nightmare. Yes, communications are down,
but they knew that would happen! They were supposed to have been
planning for this for years! The people of that organization are paid
dearly, specifically to be ready in case of an emergency. And then,
the emergency happens, and it all falls to hell.

The Army can go in, and within 24 hours, we could have had food and
water and medical facilities on the ground, IF we had been
requested... but we weren't, until it was too late, and people were
already dead and dying of preventable causes.

50,000 people were stranded in a convention center, and FEMA didn't
know ANYTHING about them until four days after the storm. They would
have known all about it if they'd just turned on the television,
because apparently CNN has better information than the people who are
supposed to handle the disaster. This is pitiful, and inexcusable.

Opportunities have been wasted, resources have been poorly used.
Every vehicle going into that region, whether traveling by land, air,
or sea, should be carrying food, water, clothing, medicine, and other
supplies in, and carrying people out. It doesn't matter if they can
only fit a little bit on a helicopter. If a helicopter is going to
pick up medical evacuees, they have room in their cargo hold to carry
supplies in, before picking up the patient. Who the f*ck was running
the logistics here, and did we check to make sure they'd at least
graduated kindergarten before hiring them?

Things only started to work when the Army took over (thank God for
General Honore), and I'm sure they're going to need much more help
before it's over. I'm a qualified officer in the Army Engineer Corps.
SEND ME, DAMN IT! I'm sitting here, making LJ entries, when I should
be helping to save lives! I'm going insane, wanting to do something!

To finish off, I'd like to address Mr. George W. Chimpanzee Bush, the
President Who Destroyed America:

***

Your citizens are dying, and I personally hold you responsible for
their lives. As the president, you are a public servant, NOT a king.
Your job is to serve the people of the United States of America and
to uphold the Constitution, not to preach your Biblical beliefs and
to play golf. I'm sorry the hurricane disrupted your vacation. It
must be awful for you, but I assure you, it's far worse for the
victims.

Today, you addressed the nation, and admitted that you made some
mistakes - that everyone involved in the relief effort made some
mistakes. That's not good enough.

Apologies won't bring back the people who died needlessly. As the
highest authority in the land, you can't afford those sorts of
mistakes. "Oops!" is not an answer. You were supposed to do
something, but you didn't until it was too late for many of them, and
more are going to die. Their blood is on your hands. There are still
people living in filth, sleeping in the streets, crowded into
crumbling buildings, stranded on rooftops, dehydrated, sick, dying,
and desperate for just a bottle of water and a bit of food.

These are American citizens - your highest priority... but you are
incapable of understanding their suffering because you've been so
sheltered all your life, you can't even comprehend the sensations of
true hunger, thirst, or desperation. You've never had to worry about
your next meal, or of having a roof over your head. And when you left
New Orleans, after hugging a few people while surrounded by cameras,
and you flew back to Washington, DC in the comfort of your
helicopter,

WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR DINNER? I'll bet it was delicious, wasn't it?
Oh, and by the way, how much money are you going to donate to the
victims of the hurricane, Mr. Bush? How much money is going to come
out of your personal bank account? You're independantly wealthy, and
could live comfortably on JUST the pension from your presidency for
the rest of your life. Children are giving their lunch money. What
are you going to give? How much do you really love America?

The American people don't want your lies, excuses, and apologies
anymore. How many mistakes can you make before you stop making them?
How many more people have to die for your stupidity? Should we just
wait for the next major disaster to strike, just in case you do
better next time? We don't want a "next time", Mr. Bush. We don't
want your promises of a better tomorrow. We want your resignation.

Michelle J. d'Entremont
2LT, US Army Reserves
Engineer Corps

(I have no fear of publicly using my name for this. Pass it on. These
are my words, and I stand behind them with my name, rank, and
convictions. And if it ends up on CNN, with my name, and Bush reads
it, even better.)

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mijan/27168.html