I sent the following to CBS news and also faxed it to the Corporate HQ at Tribune Media Services at 312.222.2581 :
As an Active Duty Member of our Armed Forces and previously deployed in support of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, I read with utter dismay this so-called editorial by Andy Rooney. I offer the following letter:
While you are correct in your first statement that “Most of the reporting from Iraq is about death and destruction.” you are 100% wrong about the rest of your writing. Why is it that we don’t hear about all the good things that our HEROES (Yes, Rooney, contrary to your opinion they are Heroes) are doing every day in Iraq? What about all the schools that our Brave (Yes, they are Brave!) Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines have rebuilt (BTW, they have rehab-ed over 1500 schools thus far!). What about the fact that all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are now open throughout Iraq. What about the 22 MILLION vaccinations that have been administered to Iraqi children by coalition forces? The list goes on and on. I have emails from some of my buddies over there listing much, much more with tons of POSITIVE accomplishments thanks to the dedication and efforts of the U.S. and coalition military.
There are plenty of “Ernie Pyle’s” over there to tell us about all the positive and wonderful things our servicemen and women are doing over there, but the American-hating liberal-biased ass holes like yourself refuse to report on this.
As for your 5 “questions” to the military, you are not worthy of even being in the same room with a service member or even shining their boots, let alone ask him or her a question. You make me sick!
Do you really think that we do this for medals and glory? I don’t need a medal to keep me going and I DID volunteer to serve my country “AGAINST ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC”. Have you not heard an awesome song by a REAL AMERICAN stating that we don’t do it for the money, we don’t do it for the glory, we just do it anyway? (That would be Toby Keith BTW.) I have never gone about my duty completing my mission with any expectation of a medal. (Unlike Kerry who put himself in for and wrote his own medal citations AND got to go home immediately afterwards.)
As for your mention of the Army’s suicide rate, have you thought about the fact that the stories and editorials such as yours may contribute to the “unhappiness” over there? So, Mr. Rooney, maybe you and your so-called journalists have contributed to a suicide or two. How dare you. You don’t know anything about the circumstances that may have contributed to a soldier committing suicide. Having been on numerous deployments, I can say first hand that home life and the support from home (or lack of) can greatly affect one’s mental stability and outlook on life.
In closing, I suggest that until you’ve ‘been there, done that” you stick to editorializing subjects you can relate to and have experience with. And if that’s absolutely nothing at all, that’s fine with me.
Brian Wells