June 6, 2006

Dear Governor Kulongoski:

I would like to thank you for attending and speaking at the memorial service for my nephew, PFC William Ramirez who was killed in action in Baghdad, February 11, 2004. Your care and sympathy were evident as well as your sincere understanding for exactly what William suffered and sacrificed.

We watched helplessly as our young nephew enlisted and deployed. My husband and I monitored the news and the actions of our government. With millions around the world we protested the invasion of Iraq. It was wrong before it started and no amount of time, money and lives wasted is going to make it right. When William died, we knew we had to do more to rein in a government bent on this course at all costs and work to alert a largely uninformed public. We have two boys of our own, 10 and 15 years old. We cannot allow this immoral, illegal war to fester and expand until they are engulfed by it too.

The news coming from Iraq seems to get worse with each passing day. The current investigations of our military killing Iraqi civilians make me sick at heart! I will never forget that evening, while William was stationed in Baghdad that my brother whispered to me (so his other children would not overhear) that they had received an email from William in which he told them that he had already had to kill Iraqis. I cried that night and I continue to cry. The thought of my shy, sweet nephew killing was just beyond belief. How must that have affected him? How would he live with those visions?

That is something we will never know, but thousands of military families are discovering the horror of surviving service in Iraq. My heart breaks for them. Their lives will be forever changed and filled with sad challenges, physical and mental. I know you have talked with many of Oregon’s service people and their families and you are very aware of the increasingly impossible burden this war is placing on so few. I also know that as Oregon’s governor it is not in your power to end it, but your voice is strong and your experiences in and with our military give you the power of truth. When our troops take their oath to serve they give up the right to question. It is up to us hold our leaders accountable for how our military is used. Please speak out strongly on behalf of those who are now silenced forever and those who are suffering because of this war.

In January 2005, in your State of the State address you asked, as the Commander in Chief of the Oregon National Guard regarding Iraq, “Is there an exit strategy – and how far down the road is it?” It is now almost one and one half years later. How much further along this bomb-ridden road have we traveled? How many more fallen Oregonians have you eulogized? Is there any sign that your question was heard or answered? It is time to rephrase the question and demand some answers and action.

Sincerely,

Annette Pritchard