This Veteran's Day, HuffPost looks back at the life of veteran Tomas Young, who died Monday night. He was 34.
The Iraq War veteran made waves in March of 2013 when he sent a letter to former President George W. Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, condemning the war. The forcefully worded message went viral, cementing Young's stance as one of the harshest critics of the Bush administration's war.
Young had served in Iraq in 2004 after enlisting in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Five days into his service, a bullet severed his spine, leaving him paralyzed. At the time of his letter, Young said he planned to reject the care that was keeping him alive and choose death, though he later said he'd go on as long possible in order to spend time with his wife.
Young's letter contained a stinging critique of the former president and vice president.
"You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans -- my fellow veterans -- whose future you stole," Young wrote.
But Young's opinions about Bush were nuanced. In a HuffPost Live interview a month after his letter was published, he said he thought Bush's decisions were a product of him having been "manipulated and bamboozled" by others in his administration.
"I'm not angry with George Bush because he seems like a relatively good guy ... he wanted to be liked," Young said.
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