Letter to the President by MFSO member Rebecca Jaffe-Halpern

October 18th, 2007

Dear George W. Bush,

I write to you as a 26 year old woman who wakes up every morning next to a man 
who was critically injured in the war in Iraq.  My boyfriend is a first lieutenant in the 
Marine Corps.  In the Fall of 2006 he was out on a routine patrol when he was hit 
by an IED implanted in a wall.  The 82mm mortar shattered his right leg into about 15 
pieces, all of the veins and arteries were blown out of his leg completely, and several 
pieces of shrapnel were embedded in his body.       

I suppose I could write to you about what it is like to spend daily life with the proud 
star of our small-town high school football team who can no longer walk without aid; I 
could write to you about what it is like to get the phone call that confirms one of your 
nightmares has come true and the panic that ensues; or maybe I could tell you about the 
frustration of knowing that a person you love dearly is fighting for his life on the 
battlefield of a war justified by dishonesty and irresponsibility.   

Perhaps I could write to you about how when the field doctors at al-Asad got to him 
they found my photograph clutched in his hand; I could write to you about how those 
doctors taped that photograph to his chest to stay with him through all of his surgeries 
and follow him home.  Maybe I could try to explain to you what it is like to hear that 
story, but be unable to physically hold his hand; I could write to you about what it is like 
to hear someone tell you over an echoing phone line from Germany “Well, he has lost a 
lot of blood, and is on a lot of medication so don’t be surprised if he loses consciousness
 while trying to talk to you.”   

Or perhaps I could tell you about the months at Bethesda Naval hospital, and how it 
feels to be in a seven story hospital building filled with young men and women missing 
pieces of their arms, legs, heads, and perhaps most importantly their souls.  I am thankful
 everyday that my boyfriend is one of the lucky ones who will recover, but there are 
thousands upon thousands who won’t.   

I could write to you in depth about all of those things, but alas, I am sure you aren’t 
interested because none of it pertains to corporate interest, securing oil pipelines, favors 
for the rich, exploiting fanatical religion to gain support and power (familiar and ironic 
isn’t it?), or the establishment of unassailable American hegemony.  Given your record 
of blatant disregard for human rights and sacrifice (think torture, preemptive war, 
sacrificing your American sons and daughters under fictitious pretenses) on all sides I 
am forced to assume that these are the only factors commanding your chosen course of 
action in the Middle East.  So I must try to appeal to you on the level of basic American 
building blocks; the fact that your administration is no longer acting as a democracy, the 
foundation of American government.          

As I previously mentioned, you have a grave responsibility as a “democratically” elected 
official to accurately represent the American people to best of your ability.  And while a 
degree of control is passed along to you with our votes, I cannot help but point out that 
it is clear that you are no longer representing the will of the people in this matter.  This is 
evident both in polls, and more importantly with the newly elected Democratic House 
and Senate who have strongly planted their feet in a disapproving stance when it comes 
to your Iraq policies.  Many members of your own party and former allies have 
abandoned their supportive posts.   

You and a few carefully chosen cronies stand alone in this monomaniacal mission of 
destruction.  When it has become abundantly obvious to all that you no longer represent 
the will of the people, you have become a destructive force, an irresponsible, tyrannical 
dictatorship that gives nothing but casual disregard to the will of his citizens.  How can 
we fight in the so-called name of democracy abroad when we no longer have one at 
home? 

The Declaration of Independence states, “Whenever any form of government becomes 
destructive of these ends (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the 
people to alter or abolish it and institute new government.”  It is an undebatable fact that 
you lied us into war and you have become a destructive force of these ends and maybe 
it is time for us, the people, to exercise our right to abolish your reign and institute a new 
government that will function as a democracy was intended.  Please, think about it.