Second Letter to Rumsfeld
Dear Mr. Donald Rumsfeld:
As I awoke this morning on
the eve on my second trip to Washington, D.C., I re-read
the letter that I had sent to you from Germany on May 4,
2004 (see attached). I was there in Germany with my
son’s fiancée, Bianca. I mailed that letter on the one
month anniversary of my son’s death. Just so you know,
SSG Michael William Mitchell was killed in action on
04-04-04 in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq on the first day of
the Shiite uprising. Mike volunteered for the mission
that day with just a week left in his tour. Imagine my
horror this summer while meeting with Mike’s buddies
back in Germany and learning that all of their equipment
had been turned in the day before on 04-03-04. All I can
think is that if you had not shut down Mutqada al-Sadr’s
newspaper and arrested one of his top aides in that
prior week, my son would be alive today and my life
would not be in the shambles that it is. I find it
rather ironic that as we claim to be bringing democracy
to Iraq, we eliminate freedom of the press. It is quite
obvious that our administration does not like
dissention.
I had not read that letter
in months but I could clearly touch again upon the anger
and hostility that I felt so strongly then. It has now
been 9 ½ months since my only son’s death and although
the anger has subsided, the sadness and pain that I feel
are always present. When I first learned of Mike’s
death, my immediate response was to write letters, grant
interviews, and in general speak out against this unjust
war every chance I got. These actions kept me strong and
gave me the strength to continue living. I made my first
trip to Washington, D.C. in early October and
participated in a rally and march from Arlington
National Cemetery to the White House. It felt great as I
had wanted to go to the White House ever since I refused
the priority mail from the White House containing
President Bush’s condolence letter. It was then that I
first requested a meeting with President Bush and
yourself, but there was no reply and no meeting.
However, after being
spiritually uplifted during a great week spent with my
new friends, I came home and crashed and burned; hitting
my deepest depression yet. I realized that no matter
what I did, my son will never come home again. I could
not write letters nor could I go out and speak. In fact,
I could hardly eat and sleep. Well, I did bounce back
from that depression and started feeling stronger again
just to be knocked back down by the election results.
Myself and many others who have lost their loved ones
took those results as a real slap in the face. Oh, and
then the holidays came around; Veterans Day,
Thanksgiving, Mike’s Grandma’s birthday on December 11th,
Christmas, and then my birthday just passed on January 9th.
All of these events without a card or phone call from
Mike. On my birthday, I just kept re-reading last year’s
card while I cried. I can’t begin to describe to you the
pain that one feels at these moments but my new friends
know what I am talking about; and if you let us, we will
share these stories with you. So with the encouragement
of my friends, I have decided to make another trip to
Washington, D.C. so that we can support each other as we
make a final plea to meet with you. If you are sincere
in your statem ents that you “feel our loss” and that
this grief that we are experiencing is “felt to your
core”, then I am sure that you will want to meet with us
and then you can see what “grief” really looks and feels
like. I must say that I am really amazed that you and
the others at the DOD as well as our commander-in-chief
are not interested in meeting with Gold Star Families.
Anyway, I will be there along with my new friends at the
Pentagon on Wednesday at noon. I am really hoping that
you find the time to meet with us as I am sure it will
be an enlightening experience for both parties.
Sincerely,
Bill Mitchell
