"I Am Sorry That It Has Come to This": A Soldier's Last Words

[HiPointDem]

Daniel Somers was a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was part of Task Force Lightning, an intelligence unit...On June 10, 2013, Daniel wrote the following letter to his family before taking his life. Daniel was 30 years old. His wife and family have given permission to publish it.


I am sorry that it has come to this...

You must not blame yourself. The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.

To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand. Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. They offer no help, and actively block the pursuit of gaining outside help via their corrupt agents at the DEA. Any blame rests with them.

Beyond that, there are the host of physical illnesses that have struck me down again and again, for which they also offer no help. There might be some progress by now if they had not spent nearly twenty years denying the illness that I and so many others were exposed to. Further complicating matters is the repeated and severe brain injuries to which I was subjected, which they also seem to be expending no effort into understanding. What is known is that each of these should have been cause enough for immediate medical attention, which was not rendered...

Since then, I have tried everything to fill the void. I tried to move into a position of greater power and influence to try and right some of the wrongs. I deployed again, where I put a huge emphasis on saving lives. The fact of the matter, though, is that any new lives saved do not replace those who were murdered. It is an exercise in futility.

Then, I pursued replacing destruction with creation. For a time this provided a distraction, but it could not last. The fact is that any kind of ordinary life is an insult to those who died at my hand. How can I possibly go around like everyone else while the widows and orphans I created continue to struggle? If they could see me sitting here in suburbia, in my comfortable home working on some music project they would be outraged, and rightfully so...

Thus, I am left with basically nothing. Too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war. Abandoned by those who would take the easy route, and a liability to those who stick it out—and thus deserve better. So you see, not only am I better off dead, but the world is better without me in it...

I ask that you be happy for me for that. It is perhaps the best break I could have hoped for. Please accept this and be glad for me.

http://gawker.com/i-am-sorry-that-it-has-come-to-this-a-soldiers-last-534538357

[Xipe Totec]

1. Link does not work

And, frankly, the note seems extremely fishy to me. Over broad and without specifics.

What war crimes did he commit?

He doesn't say.

No who, what where, when information, which you would expect from a guy that's just about to off himself and has one last chance to unburden.

[HiPointDem]

2. it works for me, so don't know why it's not working for you.

they publish his name and the units he served with. if you don't believe the story maybe you could check up.

Daniel Somers was a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was part of Task Force Lightning, an intelligence unit. In 2004-2005, he was mainly assigned to a Tactical Human-Intelligence Team (THT) in Baghdad, Iraq, where he ran more than 400 combat missions as a machine gunner in the turret of a Humvee, interviewed countless Iraqis ranging from concerned citizens to community leaders and and government officials, and interrogated dozens of insurgents and terrorist suspects. In 2006-2007, Daniel worked with Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) through his former unit in Mosul where he ran the Northern Iraq Intelligence Center. His official role was as a senior analyst for the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and part of Turkey). Daniel suffered greatly from PTSD and had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and several other war-related conditions. On June 10, 2013, Daniel wrote the following letter to his family before taking his life. Daniel was 30 years old. His wife and family have given permission to publish it.

http://gawker.com/i-am-sorry-that-it-has-come-to-this-a-soldiers-last-534538357

[Xipe Totec]

8. Yea, I can see it now. Must have been a cached error in my browser.

And I checked snopes and they say the story is true. Yet, their reference points back t gawker as the source.

It bothers me immensely that the guy didn't name names.

What are we supposed to do with this letter, if it's true? Who do we go after? Who do we indict? Who do we charge?

Is there anything actionable in the letter?

[sibelian]

4. Actually this story's already been posted earlier on DU.

It was on Gawker as well. No difficulties with any links there.

[Xipe Totec]

6. I can see the link now. I'm sorry, but my assessment has not changed

It still sounds like a work of fiction; it reads like a novel; with enough vagueness that we can read into the story whatever we want and identify with the character.

A man who is about to off himself because of these atrocities would name names and would want to leave behind enough ammo to prosecute the villains of this story.

Instead, he points the finger at the highest echelons skipping, what? Two, three or four levels above him.

As poignant as the story is, it is not credible to me. I'll stick my neck out and say this is an urban legend.

I will be happy to eat crow on this one if proven wrong.

Regards,

-XT

[Xipe Totec]

7. Well, Snopes says it's true. So I'm eating crow for dinner.

My abject apologies for being skeptical.

Here is the snopes link:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/somers.asp

[Democracyinkind]

3. One of the most powerful things I have ever read.

We often talk about Iraq and Veterans in the abstract. It doesn't get any more real and personal than this. This should be mandatory reading.

I'm intruiged by the DEA reference. Wonder what that was about. Also, I would really like to know what he was forced to do in Iraq that made him lose it. He writes "These things go far beyond what most are even aware of".

How could we let this happen?

[Waiting For Everyman]

5. It's the same thing Viet Nam veterans went through.

Like my late husband, for one. But people wouldn't listen to them, and the result of that was sending their sons to go through it again. This was entirely predictable. We never learn. The next time, it will be no different, count on it.