Let me begin by saying I know it isn't fair to blame the Bush administration for this veteran's death, since things like this happened to veterans before and will continue to happen as long as we humans remain the belligerent species we are. But I don't give a damn. I blame the bastards anyway, for getting us into this war just because they liked the idea.
The story of Joseph Patrick Dwyer is as perfectly emblematic of what we have done to our youth in this war of choice as any I've heard.
Joseph Patrick Dwyer grew up in New York. He went to see a recruiter after the towers fell on 9/11 because "I knew I had to do something." Just before he shipped off to Iraq as a medic, he got married.
During the first week of the war,
"About 500 Iraqis were killed during those days, and Dwyer watched as Ali’s family near the village of al Faysaliyah was caught in the crossfire. He grabbed the 4-year-old boy from his father and sprinted with him to safety."
A photojournalist caught the moment, the image ran in countless papers, and it became one of the symbols of the heroic, caring nature of our soldiers.
After three months in Iraq, Dwyer returned to the states and exhibited classic PTSD symptoms. He sat with his back to the wall in restaurants, shunned crowds and friends. He began abusing drugs.
"In October 2005, he thought there were Iraqis outside his window in El Paso, Texas. When he heard a noise, he started shooting. Three hours later, police enticed him to come out and no one was injured."
His marriage broke up. He spent some time in a psychiatric ward. According to his wife,
“He was a very good and caring person. He was just never the same when he came back, because of all the things he saw. He tried to seek treatment, but it didn’t work.”
He died of an overdose on June 28.
A patriot moved to action by 9/11. A medic. Someone who considered the life of an Iraqi child as precious as the lives of his fellow soldiers. And clearly a fragile individual who couldn't take the stress of combat. One of the many casualties, American and Iraqi, of this damned war we didn't have to fight in the first place.
McCain is perfectly willing to continue this madness indefinitely. And it's almost certain, if he becomes President, he'll find a pretext to bomb Iran, which is the international equivalent of going outside in a swimsuit and whacking a beehive with a baseball bat. More soldiers will be committed to another endless, pointless, dangerous war, more will die in combat and more will be injured for life, physically and psychologically.
We've got to stop people like Bush and McCain from controlling our destiny. The only way I know to do that right now is via the ballot box. I swear, this is the most important election of my lifetime.
Note: I just made
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