My name is Adele Kubein; I am a member of Military Families Speak Out, and the mother of a twenty-six year old veteran of the Iraq War. My daughter served in Mosul for ten months and was injured and medevac’d out of Iraq in January of 2004.

The window of opportunity for our troops to bring peace to Iraq slammed shut shortly after the invasion. The criminal lack of planning on the part of this administration, immediately and cruelly resulted in chaos, disorder and death for the citizens of Iraq, who had never asked to be bombed and invaded, and posed no threat to America. Recent events such as the Downing Street Memo prove the administration’s intent to deceive the American people.

Our political system is based on accountability. Elected officials are held accountable by the people who place them in office. In order to exercise our right of accountability, it is imperative that we inform ourselves from a broad spectrum of sources. As the electorate we must learn our rights and insist that our officials answer to us.

The terrible costs of war are seemingly unending. National Guard and reserve troops who never chose to be instruments of destruction, went to Iraq as my daughter did, with the implanted belief that they would be welcomed as liberators, to bring freedom, peace and prosperity to Iraq. Personally I have seen the effects of this lie as my daughter struggles to control her anger, fear and depression. As she learns to live with disability.

Instead the troops have endured fear, maiming and death. Evidence of the failure of the administration’s plans are the several hundred soldiers who have suffered life altering wounds, brain damage, mutilation, blindness and missing limbs. Over fifteen thousand medically evacuated soldiers, and almost 1700 dead loved ones are the human price we have paid. The people of Iraq, particularly the women, have paid the greatest price, with destroyed homes and dead children. They cannot walk the rubble strewn streets of their cities safely.

At first I thought that once we had broken the country, we needed to stay to fix it, but the longer we stay the worse the consequences. American troops are the magnets that attract death and destruction to the Iraqi people.

Women could once walk the streets of Baghdad with their children, hold jobs, and lead normal lives; Mosul was a thriving city of 2 million people, Fallujah a center of religion. Iraq is the biblical site of early civilization. Now these cities are in ruins, women live in fear and poverty, children starve and families are split. I saw a photo of a wailing Iraqi man with his bloodied child in his arms. This scene is repeated thousands of times over. How can we condone destroying a nation to bring democracy to it?

As long as American soldiers occupy Iraq there will be a reason for an insurgency, it is time to step down and ask the world to help us repair the damage we have done.

Collateral damage is a dry phrase, but what it stands for is an Iraqi parent holding a tiny body, it is our soldiers kneeling over a comrade, begging them to hold on. It is disabled guard members isolated far from home, on bases, and their families surviving on below-poverty wages. Instead of peace and prosperity we have brought chaos and death to ourselves as well as to the Iraqi people.

By the end of 2004, the last date I have figures for, the state of Oregon has borne the brunt of 1.3 billion dollars we have given to pay for this war, at that time, an average of 388 dollars for every Oregonian. What could we do with that money in a state with one of the highest hunger rates in the U.S., with schools that struggle just to buy textbooks?

As of last December one out of every 210 Oregon Guards members has died and 119 had been wounded in combat. As of May 22 forty-four Oregon soldiers have died. That does not include the heart attacks, deaths from infections and motor vehicle accidents, and psychological as well as other casualties not considered combat related. This number has grown in the last six months. How many times must we see the flag at half-mast in our state before we act to bring our soldiers home?

But the lasting legacy of this war besides bankruptcy, the division of our nation, and the disapproval of the rest of the world, is the cost to the Oregon military families directly affected. I heard my daughter say that the war is real, not just on TV. She told me of holding dying people while their blood flowed over her. She once said that the real costs are to the children of the veterans, to the wives and husbands who struggle to keep the families together through poverty and fear, to the children of divorce and anger.

Bitter indeed is this legacy for America. Many generations will bear the debt and the scars of being lied to by the people we are supposed to trust. We must keep up the pressure; show that not all of us want war. A few people in this administration should not be allowed to lie to us, to squander our nation’s resources and our loved one’s lives.

Together we are strong. We have power to change things with every dime we spend, every conversation we have with strangers. What legacy will America leave in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of our children? Will we be people who did not raise our voices to stop this crime, or will we be remembered as the ones who spoke out? It is up to us to decide. Our loved ones depend on us to act morally, the world depends on us to lead the way, let us lead well. Remember, the only true, lasting, national security is Peace.