Happy 2004, Mr. Bush

And look, George - here's the first military family of this election year who's publicly furious over your war mongering. What follows is the entire Arizona Republic article - cutting anything out of it would diminish this family's message and rage.

Piestwa family calls video 'domestic terrorism'

Family members of slain soldier Lori Piestewa lashed out at the media Wednesday for practicing "domestic terrorism" by televising a tape of the badly wounded Piestewa in an Iraqi hospital bed shortly before her death.

"This terrorism was not from any foreign group wishing to harm the United States but from our own people wanting to make a quick buck off the misfortune of two young women," a prepared statement from the Piestewa family said of NBC's decision to air the tape on their Nightly NewsTuesday. Several cable channels picked it up, but local affilliate, Channel 12 (KPNX) decided not to air the footage.

Iraqi television never aired the brief tape, which was being kept at the home of a station employee.

The tape also shows a gravely wounded and unresponsive Jessica Lynch in a hospital bed next to Piestewa in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, where the Army's 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed on March 23.

In the tape, Piestewa is shown with eyes shut and swollen and with a bandage around her head. She licks her lips as someone adjusts her head so the photographer can get a better shot of her.

"We would guess that congratulations are in order," the Piestewa family's statement noted, sarcastically. "The media has again successfully created a sense of fear, anxiety and hurt among the family and friends of those who loved and continue to love Lori Piestewa."

Piestewa's family has attended many memorial services and pro-military gatherings throughout the nation since Lori's death. But the statement contained a number of pointed, antiwar criticisms of the Bush Administration and military.

The statement said the family hopes all top government officials get a copy of "Lori dying in agony so that they realize from the comfort of their homes that war is not the only option."

The Piestewa family also wants a copy of the tape in the hands of legislators who supported the war "because they had to make sure someone pay for 9/11."

The strongest criticisms were saved for commanders at Fort Bliss, Texas, where Piestewa and Lynch were stationed before their deployment to the Middle East.

Each of the commanders should receive a copy of the tape "so they'll never again make the same mistake . . . and, if by chance they do, we hope they won't leave them behind to die the painful death Lori endured."