Patriotic Behavior - Threatening Grieving Mothers and Ignoring the Truth?

The post I have copied below is from First Sergeant Perry Jeffries (an Iraqi War veteran and a member of Operation Truth). The letter is addressed to the "patriot" who ran over all the crosses placed at Camp Casey honoring our fallen soldiers. Its well worth a read as Jeffries fought alongside and knew many of the soldiers those crosses represented. In fact, he placed the crosses there, himself, to honor those men.On a similar note (false patriots dishonoring those who serve), there are those who have suggested that many soldiers who are mortally wounded in Iraq are shipped elsewhere to die (Germany, Afghanistan, back in the U.S.). Then, the Department of Defense doesn't need to count them as casualties of the "Iraq War". This was standard practice in Vietnam (ask any Vietnam vet).While I can understand the DoD's self-interested reasoning for perpetrating such vicious, dishonorable lies, I cannot understand why our media has no interest in covering this story. The DoD has to downplay the real costs of the war to the American public or they don't get to "play" anymore. Do the media also seek to "downplay the real costs of the war to the American public"? Rest assured - this is a rhetorical question.Local soldier, Steven Z. Madison, died at Fort Hood, Kansas on June 26, 2005. , from complications resulting from severe burns suffered in a recently-repaired shower while he was stationed in Iraq. Can anyone say Depleted Uranium? The official DoD website charged with recording these deaths is: http://www.defendamerica.mil/fallen/oif/oif-army.html#m . Check the site out. See if you can find Steven's name on it. I sure can't. I wonder how many "Steven's" there are all across this country that the press and the DoD don't want us to know about?Our local press should investigate this, shouldn't they? I've sent them two emails over the past few months asking them to do so. I will forward this one to them. They have not, as of yet, responded. You'd think the Post-Star would jump on this! A local story with truly international implications. I'm not sure which is worse, starting a war against a civilian population, dishonoring those who died or covering up the truth of it. Has this behavior replaced real patriotism?As Thomas Paine wrote, "It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government." Where are the true patriots?


OperationTruth.com
Mr. Northern: I am a Veteran of the Iraq war, having served with the 4th Infantry Division on the initial invasion with Force Package One.While I was in Iraq, a very good friend of mine, Christopher Cutchall, was killed in an unarmored HMMWV outside of Baghdad. He was a cavalry scout serving with the 3d ID. Once he had declined the award of a medal because Soldiers assigned to him did not receive similar awards that he had recommended.He left two sons and a wonderful wife.On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington West.One of my Soldiers in Iraq was Roger Turner.We gave him a hard time because he always wore all of his protective equipment, including three pairs of glasses or goggles. He did this because he wanted to make sure that he returned home to his family. He rode a bicycle to work every day to make sure that he was able to save enough money on his Army salary to send his son to college. At Camp Anaconda, where the squadron briefly stayed, a rocket landed inside a tent, sending a piece of debris or fragment into him and killed him. On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington West. One of my Soldiers was Henry Bacon. He was one of the finest men I ever met. He was in perfect shape for a man over forty, working hard at night. He told me that he did that because he didn't have much money to buy nice things for his wife, who he loved so much, so he had to be in good shape for her. He was like a father to many young men in his section of maintenance mechanics. They fixed our vehicles with almost no support and fabricated parts and made repairs that kept our squadron rolling on the longest, fastest armor advance ever made under fire. He was so very proud of his son-in-law that married the beautiful daughter so well raised by Henry. His son-in-law was a helicopter pilot with the 1st Cavalry Division, who died last year. Henry stopped to rescue a vehicle belonging to another unit on what was to be his last day in Iraq. He could have kept rolling - he was headed to Kuwait after a year's tour. But he stopped. He could have sent others to do the work, but he was on the ground, leading by example, when he was killed. On Monday night, August 16, you took it upon yourself to go out in the country, where a peaceful group was exercising their constitutional rights, and harming no one, and you ran down the memorial cross erected for Henry and for his son-in-law by Arlington West.Mr. Northern - I know little about Cindy Sheehan except that she is a grieving mother, a gentle soul, and wants to bring harm to no one. I know little about you except that you found your way to Crawford on Monday night in August with chains and a pipe attached to your truck for the sole purpose of dishonoring a memorial erected for my friends and lost Soldiers and hundreds of others that served this nation when they were called. I find it disheartening that good men like these have died so that people like you can threaten a mother who lost a child with your actions. I hope that you are ashamed of yourself.
Perry Jefferies, First Sergeant, USA (retired)