This
is a very important letter that was written by SGT
Walter J. Rausch and 1st Platoon, all must read and
pass on.
SGT Rausch's email follows:
Mom
Be my voice. I want this message
heard. It is mine and my platoon's to the country. A
man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in
another company in our battalion. I can no longer be
silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis
and Americans everyday. Send it to a congressman if
you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let
this message be heard please.
My fellow Americans,
I have a task for those with the
courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message
that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind
need to see. I am not a political man nor one with
great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself
helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a
couple years ago.
I have watched on television how
the American public questions why their mothers,
fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and
dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own
soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I
am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are
here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has
been the most costly and sought after cause in our
small span of existence on our little planet. Bought
in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give
the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is
given to every man, woman, and child I believe by
God. I am talking of freedom.
Freedom. One word but yet
countless words could never capture it's true
meaning or power. "For those who have fought for it,
freedom has a taste the protected will never know."
I read that once and it couldn't be more true. It's
not the average American's fault that he or she is
"blind and deaf" to the taste of freedom. Most
American's are born into their God given right so it
is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I
would even dare to say that it isn't surprising that
they take for granted what they have had all their
life. My experiences in the military however opened
my eyes to the truth.
Ironically you will find the
biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from
those who have had no military experience and
haven't had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of
those who are daring enough to question such a noble
cause to come here for just a month and see it first
hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be
silenced.
I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on
the President's lawn and say that America isn't
worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and
said Iraq isn't worth dying for. She badmouthed all
that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is
rolling over in his grave.
Ladies and gentleman I ask you
this. What if you lived in a country that wasn't
free? What if someone told you when you could have
heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no
sewage systems so human waste flowed into the
streets? What if someone would kill you for
bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren't
allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or
have cell phones unless under extreme censorship?
What if you couldn't put shoes on your child's feet?
You need not to have a great understanding of the
world but rather common sense to realize that it is
our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If
you lived that way would you not want someone to
help you????
The Iraqi's pour into the streets
to wave at us and when we liberated the cities
during the war they gathered in the thousands to
cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldier's in
WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!!
Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and
killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes
over here, yet American's badmouth our President for
having us here.
Every police station here has a
dozen or more memorials for officers that were
murdered trying to ensure that their people live
free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed
every day. What if it were your country? What would
your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the
blood that may be shed. The media never reports the
true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqi's. Yes
there are bad one's here, but I assure you they are
a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big
enough to cause worry in this country's future.
I have watched brave souls give
their all and lose their lives and limbs for this
cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the
"deaf and blind" be the only voice shouting.
Stonewall Jackson once said, "All that I have, all
that I am is at the service of the country." For
these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice,
including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till
I can no longer. These men and women are heroes.
Their spirit lives on in their military and they
will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain
but rather for a cause that is larger than all of
us.
My fellow countrymen and women,
we are not overseas for our country alone but also
another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom
to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they
fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in
their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them
as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne.
Freedom is not free, but yet it
is everyone's right to have. Ironic isn't it? That
is why we are here. Though you will always have the
skeptics, I know that most of our military will
agree with this message. Please, at the request of
this soldier spread this message to all you know. We
are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal.
It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand
ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because,
Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter
what country it is! And after the world is free only
then can we hope to have peace.
SGT Walter J. Rausch and 1st
Platoon
Charlie Co. 2/327 Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
