33 of the Day

Today, in a Democracy Now! special on this week’s 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we spend the hour looking at the remarkable life and imminent death of one Iraq veteran: 33-year-old Tomas Young. He recently announced he’s decided to end his life by discontinuing his nourishment, which comes in the form of liquid through a feeding tube.

Tomas Young’s tragedy goes back to 2001. Just two days after the 9/11 attacks, he signed off—he signed up for the military after hearing President Bush’s Ground Zero pledge to go after those responsible. He wanted to deploy to Afghanistan, but instead he was sent to Iraq. On the fifth day into his deployment in Iraq, on April 4th, 2004, Tomas’s unit came under fire in Sadr City. He was left paralyzed, never to walk again. Released from medical care, he returned home to become an active member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

AMY GOODMAN: He was wounded on the same day that Cindy Sheehan’s son, Casey Sheehan, was killed, April 4th, 2004. Tomas Young’s story was the subject of the award-winning documentary Body of War, made by the legendary talk show host Phil Donahue and the filmmaker Ellen Spiro. The 2007 film follows Tomas’s rehabilitation, his struggles with his injuries, his political awakening to become one of the most prominent antiwar U.S. veterans of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.