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AlterNet recently posted an interesting interview with three American vets back from the war in Iraq.

What is striking is the sense of disillusionment and betrayal that runs through the words of these young men — not, as the Bush administration would have us believe, because "defeatists" in this country have called for US troop withdrawals, but because of the failures of the Bush administration itself. And more importantly, because of our failures, the celebrated American public.

In their words:

[W]hen I came home I was pissed off and dissatisfied with the dialogue. In the spring of 2004, John Kerry and George Bush were throwing the Iraq war back and forth like a political football. And to be honest with you, nobody really knew what the heck they were talking about. The news media was dominated by Martha Stewart and what color pajamas Michael Jackson was wearing, and the country didn't really seem connected with the war.

. . .

I don't care what George Bush tells you, our military's been run into the ground. More than half of our folks are there for a second time, the divorce rates have doubled, we're now moving combat units out of Korea and out of training units in the United States to perform combat missions in Iraq, recruiting numbers are in the toilet, and retention numbers will soon fall. At the end of the day, he's really destroyed our military, and that will have long-term effects for our national security for decades.

. . .

Accountability and responsibility. I bring up these two words because the American public are largely responsible for where we are right now, therefore they are accountable for our nation's failure in Iraq and diminishing status abroad...We allowed ourselves to be manipulated following 9/11 and adopted the "any Muslim will do" attitude that afforded the administration the opportunity to use 9/11 to justify Iraq, a nation that had nothing to do with the attacks.

. . .

While the American public is to blame for allowing itself to be manipulated, this administration is to blame for the manipulation. The war in Iraq has been a total failure and an abuse of power...Bush and the rest of this administration must be held accountable for their colossal failures following 9/11, chiefly focusing on Iraq while Osama bin Laden is still at large, and for manipulating intelligence, lying to the U.N., and for the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis and U.S. service members.

. . .

While the military ranks tend to be more conservative than the nation as a whole, more and more veterans of this war are becoming disillusioned. For many of us it all goes back to WMD, the president's primary — or sole — justification for the invasion. When they weren't found — hard to find something that is nonexistent — the ever-morphing rationale for the war is disheartening for those fighting it.

We've let these young people down — you and me.

In 1964, Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed to death in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens, New York. The attack lasted for over 15 minutes. During that time, her screams and cries for help were heard by no less than 37 residents. No one tried to stop the attack. No one even called police until half an hour after the attack began.

Forty years later, an entire nation collectively pulled down its shades and turned up its TVs so we wouldn't hear the cries of anguish and screams of pain from Iraq. Iraq is somebody else's problem. Let's not get involved.