Cameron White's Testimony in Support of SCR 4022 (Senate)
February 22, 2007
My name is Cameron White and I am a Marine Corps veteran. I served two combat tours in Iraq and I have witnessed the horrors of war. The truth is that the war does not end or stay in Iraq. We veterans carry the images of dead men, women, and children with us everywhere we go. The war follows us and we relive it everyday in several ways. For some that comes in the form of PTSD, and for others it is due to the physical injuries and disabilities such as loss of limbs or vision or hearing.
Over 23, 000 members of our armed forces have been wounded in Iraq, and many more in Afghanistan. Our troops are not fighting a war to liberate a country, they are not looking for weapons of mass destruction, and they are not fighting a war on terror. These are fallacies. Instead they are fighting for survival, fighting to come home, and fighting for each other. They fight for the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen next to them -- so that they can all come home and preferably in one piece.
That is why they fight. And that is no reason to put our troops in harm's way. We cannot tell our servicemen and women that we support our troops and then send them off to risk their lives for reasons that we can not HONESTLY justify. The United States citizens have spoken up by voting to change out our policymakers and shift our direction in Iraq. But this is being ignored by the current administration, and so we must ask our representatives to step up and make those changes on our behalf — for the troops and the constituents. Find an alternative to the troop surge, work on a REAL exit strategy, save the lives that we can, and prevent more young men and women from becoming casualties of this war, either on the battlefield or here at home.