A Letter to the Egyptian Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen from a Vietnam veteran

A Letter to the Egyptian Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen from a Vietnam veteran

The people of Egypt have stood up and shown the world the greatest of
courage. Theirs is a greater struggle than that of their Tunisian brothers and sisters. It is bloodier.

Those who stand in Tahrir Square and all across Egypt are your mothers,
fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles. They are also
your grandparents,and your grandchildren, cousins and neighbours.

They are asking for and demanding an end to this brutal regime that serves
the interests of the United States (the country of my birth), and the interests of the Zionist regime in Palestine that daily and hourly brutalizes and oppresses the Palestinian people.

I am speaking to you as a war veteran. As a boy of 18 I was in the U. S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. I was a rifleman and a radio operator, and it is only by the Grace of Allah that I am alive. I went to Vietnam twice, and sincerely believed that I was on the side of truth and justice. I believed that I was helping to free the Vietnamese people from oppression. I was wrong.

I was an instrument of the oppressor! Cannon fodder.
I was part of the oppressor’s army of occupation, that brutalized, wounded and murdered innocent people.
In time I realized that we, the American’s were the only ones who stood
in the way of the freedom and liberation of the Vietnamese people.
I was part of an armed force that prevented the Vietnamese people from determining their own destiny. Self-Determination. They won, and I am glad.
They got their freedom to determine their own destiny.

I changed as a result of my war experiences, and seeing wounded and maimed Vietnamese children, and adults, and dead and wounded on our side. I am only glad that I did not kill a Vietnamese civilian for the Vietnamese people I met were kind, generous and wonderful people. They were peaceful; we were warriors. We were wrong.

When I returned from the war zone my friends and I had many, many discussions, and we decided that we would not allow ourselves to be used to put down anti-war protests, or riots in the cities against the racial oppression of African-Americans.

I would never turn my gun on my own people. I would not let my rulers use me ever again!

President Mubarak’s regime of brutality and oppression would not last a day if the soldiers, sailors and airmen refused to be used to oppress, brutalized and murder the heroic Egyptian people.

I implore you to become one with the people.
Protect and defend them from Mubarak’s thugs, or CIA or Mossad paid agent provocateurs.
Arrest them when they commit criminal acts against the people.

May you become the army that arrests Mubarak, and Suleiman, who has been the Chief Torturer of your people, and also for the CIA’s ‘Rendition’ program.

Tell your officers that you, the Egyptian Armed forces will not serve to oppress the Egyptian people for a corrupt regime.

Say, we will not turn our guns on our own people. We will point our guns at those thugs and any others who try to harm our great and courageous people.

The Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him said "A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, so he should not oppress him, nor should he hand him over to an oppressor.

"مسلم هو أخ مسلم آخر، لذلك يجب ان لا يظلمه، ولا يجب عليه تسليمه إلى الظالم.”

No one should oppress another. This regime's rule is based on oppression. The same for America's.

May God guide you to do good. It is a hard decision. I know. But, it is right to support the people as one. It is the only way for it would end the oppression of your people, and send a great cry of joy that which will be heard across Egypt, and the world.

Peace Unto You

Paul Meuse