Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Rich Wood and I run the Alternate Brain, a blog concerned mainly with veterans' affairs. I am honored to stand before you today with two of my heroes, men of honor. Let me throw out some numbers:
Close to 3,000 American service people dead
Over 20,000 wounded, many with serious brain injury, many missing limbs.
No WMDs
Civil War in Iraq
Osama bin Forgotten
And the Taliban are resurgent in Afghanistan because troops needed there have been sent to Iraq instead.
President Bush and his henchmen lied to us at every turn to provide a justification for the war in Iraq. They fabricated evidence of WMDs, as Ambassador Wilson proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. They've cashiered flag officers, like General Shinseki, who before the war even began, made clear the war plan was insufficient and inept. People who knew failure was a foregone conclusion before the first American boots touched the Iraqi sand.
They've used the war in Iraq, our soldiers' lives, for political purposes. They've gone so far as to destroy the career of an American intelligence officer in a petty attempt at revenge. Ambassador Wilson's lovely wife, performing the critical mission of chasing down WMDs and the people who would supply them to terrorists, was put in mortal danger by her exposure, as were her contacts and assets working in the region, because Mr. Wilson dared to speak the truth. Remember, she was looking for the WMDs the President said he so desperately wanted to find.
President Bush does not want to win the War on Terror; he wants it to go on forever, for that is the basis of his power. Were it not for a Congress of sheep, or lemmings as it were because they're following him off a cliff, he would have never been able to get away with it. The Human Rubber Stamps, like Peter King, have enabled him, smiling and nodding their heads, giving him everything he asks for without oversight.
Good men like Dave Mejias are needed to put a stop to this mess.
Dave will ask the tough questions, unlike Peter King who'll do and say whatever the Republican Spin Machine tells him to.
Dave Mejias knows American troops are not just props for photo ops, not just cannon fodder and deck apes in the imperialistic conquest and illegal occupation of Iraq. Not just a comma in a footnote of history.
Dave knows that America's obligation to our fighting men and women does not stop when they can no longer carry a rifle in combat.
Dave Mejias knows that the Armed Forces of the United States are not political tools to be used by a spineless bunch who've never looked into the business end of an enemy rifle. Dishonorable men who went to the greatest lengths to avoid service in their generation's war, yet squander the lives of this generation's soldiers so cavalierly.
I have, and it is the reason I stand with him. It is the reason every veteran in New York's Third District should as well. Dave Mejias knows the true meaning of 'supporting the troops' and that's why he has my endorsement, my respect, and my unqualified support.
