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The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Mr. G.W. Bush:
I have recently read that you are frustrated with the fact that the Iraqi people have been more than remiss in expressing their gratitude to you for ‘liberating’ them, and for the sacrifices our armed forces have made in bringing about their current situation.
I regret to inform you that too many Iraqi citizens are unable to express the appropriate thanks to you and yours. So I thought that I, as an American citizen, might explain to you why your well-deserved kudos are not readily forthcoming.
I am sure that many Iraqis would be happy to send you a note of thanks, if not for the fact that they are finding it difficult to write without the hands and arms they have lost since the liberation of their country began. I know you’re thinking that they could simply dictate their feelings of gratitude to someone else, but it is rather difficult to concentrate on such things when you are running for your life from the pile of rubble that used to be your home.
There are many who, though physically able, are reluctant to put pen to paper because they deem it unseemly to send a tear-stained message to the person most responsible for the deaths of their family members, their neighbors and their friends, for whom they still grieve on a daily basis.
There are also those who cannot compose a coherent missive because they are too bitter about sons who disappeared into the torturous cesspool of Abu Ghraib, or daughters who have been defiled by American soldiers under YOUR magnificent command.
There are children who would gladly write to you, if they were able. But the fact that the present violence keeps them from attending school, as they did before you interfered with their lives, has resulted in a limited ability to express themselves in writing. Many of them are now orphaned, and are still mourning the violent deaths of their parents, which makes it difficult for them to express themselves in any meaningful way.
There are elderly women who are still too shaken with fear to speak to you openly, because they have been interrogated by the soldiers who you sent to Iraq imbued with the idea that the Iraqi people were responsible for the deaths of their fellow Americans on September 11th – and one can only wonder where that they got that totally mistaken idea.
There are hard-working people, now perpetually out-of-work, who are too busy finding food and potable water to take the time to express their appreciation for your efforts. There is also the problem of limited electricity; too infrequent and too weak to illuminate a piece of stationery to write upon, or to boot up a computer long enough to send an email your way.
There are the young adults who would gladly convey their appreciation, those who once hoped for a better future for themselves and their country, who now watch in horror as their one-beautiful cities are reduced to bomb-cratered, garbage-strewn streets too unsafe to walk. You will surely forgive their reluctance to thank you for all you have accomplished.
There are even those Iraqis who mourn the deaths of US troops – the soldiers who played with their children, who haltingly attempted to learn their language, who made efforts to befriend them in such uncertain times. Those people, as you can appreciate, are just too horrified right now to jot off the requisite ‘thank you’ notes to the White House. You see, they feel that if the great liberator president doesn’t care enough to provide the necessary protection to keep his ‘own’ safe, what chance do THEY have of surviving?
And then there are those citizens of Baghdad, who are just too in awe of the multi-billion dollar palace (embassy) you are building in their midst to stop and take a moment to drop you a line. Perhaps they are just too flabbergasted by the opulence, which far outweighs that of the very person, Saddam Hussein, whom you castigated for his excesses. Or maybe they are in a state of utter bewilderment as to why this monument is being constructed by people who continually promise that they will leave the country entirely just as soon as the Iraqi people ask them to go.
I hope this helps you to understand that it is not that the Iraqis are unappreciative of all you have done for them. It’s just that the wounded, the betrayed, the hungry, the desolate, the orphaned, the hopeless, the tortured and the dead tend to be less than grateful.
If you will indulge my candor, I believe it is time for you to recognize that your dream of being thanked by the very people whose country you have destroyed is now gone forever.
I know it's difficult, but don’t think of it as the death of a dream. Just think of it as ‘collateral damage’.
Your Most Sincerely,
Nancy Greggs
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