"In today's Iraq "Victory Plan" speech, as kissfan points out in a great diary you should read, Bush discussed a letter found on the laptop of Corporal Jeffrey B. Starr:
One of those fallen heroes is a Marine Corporal named Jeff Starr, who was killed fighting the terrorists in Ramadi earlier this year. After he died, a letter was found on his laptop computer. Here's what he wrote, he said, "[I]f you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq. I don't regret going. Everybody dies, but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so they can live the way we live. Not [to] have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators_. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
Bush left out, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story. kissfan describes it, from a NYTimes story:
Another member of the 1/5, Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, rejected a $24,000 bonus to re-enlist. Corporal Starr believed strongly in the war, his father said, but was tired of the harsh life and nearness of death in Iraq. So he enrolled at Everett Community College near his parents' home in Snohomish, Wash., planning to study psychology after his enlistment ended in August.
But he died in a firefight in Ramadi on April 30 during his third tour in Iraq. He was 22.
Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. "I kind of predicted this," Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. "A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."
Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr died for his country. We honor his sacrifice.
The President of the United States should have respected his memory by being honest about Cpl. Starr's story. He was not.
Please read kissfan's diary which is simply wonderful."-from Armando on Kos. Thanks to Washblog for the tip.
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