Tenet Urged to Split Book Royalties With Wounded Troops and Families of Soldiers Killed in Iraq
Brian Zick
Via Think Progress, in response to George Tenet's self-aggrandizing book tour, Larry Johnson at No Quarter reports that a letter has been written by a group of former CIA and other intelligence officials, urging former CIA Director Tenet to share his new wealth with the soldiers who he helped send in to harm's way, and the families of those who didn't survive.Dear Mr. Tenet:
We write to you on the occasion of the release of your book, At the Center of the Storm. You are on the record complaining about the “damage to your reputation”. In our view the damage to your reputation is inconsequential compared to the harm your actions have caused for the U.S. soldiers engaged in combat in Iraq and the national security of the United States. We believe you have a moral obligation to return the Medal of Freedom you received from President George Bush. We also call for you to dedicate a significant percentage of the royalties from your book to the U.S. soldiers and their families who have been killed and wounded in Iraq.
We agree with you that Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials took the United States to war for flimsy reasons. We agree that the war of choice in Iraq was ill-advised and wrong headed. But your lament that you are a victim in a process you helped direct is self-serving, misleading and, as head of the intelligence community, an admission of failed leadership. You were not a victim. You were a willing participant in a poorly considered policy to start an unnecessary war and you share culpability with Dick Cheney and George Bush for the debacle in Iraq. Full text of the letter here.
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