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The Battle of Cedar Gulch

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At first I thought this was a blog parody.  I mean, really, no one could be this clueless.  Right?  Boy, was I wrong.  Here's what President Bush had to say at Brooke Army Medical Center the other day.  Remember, he is visiting U.S. soldiers who are missing arms, legs, and eyes.  Some soldiers are horribly mutilated from wounds suffered in Iraq.  Most of the soldiers Bush visited were not "injured", they were "wounded".  You get wounds in combat.  You get injured while playing football or cutting brush.  This is not just mindless nitpicking on my part.  This demonstrates a Commander-in-Chief out of touch with the reality of combat.



Click here: President Visits Troops at Brooke Army Medical Center


http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060101.html


 " As you can possibly see, I have an injury myself -- not here at the hospital, but in combat with a Cedar. I eventually won. The Cedar gave me a little scratch. As a matter of fact, the Colonel asked if I needed first aid when she first saw me. I was able to avoid any major surgical operations here, but thanks for your compassion, Colonel. "  


The president needs to understand what combat means.  

It is not tangling with a chain saw and some prickly pear brush.  It involves firearms and explosives.  It means watching your best friend bleed out on the battlefield.  It means mind numbing fear as you prepare to enter a building that may or may not be providing refuge for a terrorist.  It means killing other human beings.  And for some, it leaves an emotional scar that the brave soldiers carry with them to their grave.


More importantly the President needs to understand that he now has a sacred obligation to ensure that the men and women wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan will have the full backing of their country to provide them with the medical care they need to recover their physical and mental well being.  Instead, Bush talks a good game at the hospital but is not removing obstacles for key treatment for a variety of wounds, including post-traumatic stress syndrome.  Key benefits and treatment are already being denied to some returning vets.


There is a silver lining, at least the President did not award himself a purple heart.  But this attempt at humor, no matter how well intentioned, is offensive and insulting to the soldiers who have sacrificed their bodies in response to the orders of this Commander-in-Chief.  That, in my view, is no laughing matter.


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With such offensive behavior, you would think the Democrats could think up a strategy to get most of the military vote.

Generous Vertans' Benefits should be the first step. 

This is obviously not what happened.

Bush, as many bloggers have noted, has had REPEATED facial injuries to a degree that nobody working outside the construction or forestry trades should have. Nobody sitting behind a desk gets this sort of thing. Hell, even people clearing brush don't get this many facial injuries!

If it isn't obvious now that this man is a "falling down drunk", I don't know what it is. 

Unless we assume he's getting beaten up by Laura - probably for BEING a falling down drunk.

What does this man have to do to get impeached - rape his daughters on the White House lawn? 

Is "respect of the President" so powerful that this man can literally destroy this country before somebody notices?  Are you monkeys so afraid of your leaders that you can't see that the "Emrperor has no clothes" - even when he parades naked at a press conference?

In EVERY other country in the world not ruled by some tribal dictator, this guy would have been history years ago. I can remember several European leaders in recent years who at the first whiff of scandal immediately resign and are replaced in a day.  Why is it that in America, no matter how corrupt, vicious and lying a President is, he gets a totally free pass from everybody - including most of his so-called "political opposition"?

Could it possibly be because Americans realize that THEIR PRESIDENT IS THEM? 

We anarchists who don't believe in voting often get told that if we don't vote, we can't complain. My response has always been: Au contraire, mon frere! Since we didn't vote, we're the only ones who CAN complain!

And apparently we're the only ones who DO complain... 

 

When you hide your jug in the bushes, sometimes you pay the price. 

Should we expect anything else from Curious George, the boy born with a silver spoon up his nose?


Trying to equate a few scratches he received working on his land with the wounds suffered by the brave, patriotic men and women in service to our country is beyond offensive.  He is a national embarassment and everytime he opens his pie hole and spouts stupidity it brings a tear to my eye that such a moron has been elected President of the United States...twice.

I don't know, I think I'd file this one in the self-deprecating humor department, not any dig at the troops (and he probably used injury to avoid pronunciation problems with "wounded").

Though bringing up purple hearts is a good point, doesn't anyone remember all those people on the floor of the RNC wearing those mocking purple heart stickers?  Just, plain, horrible.

bush has consistently displayed an appalling lack of empathy or even basic understanding of what real people have to deal with in the way of problems, tragedies, losses and death... his comments on various occasions in the katrina disaster and countless other instances reveal him to not only be out of touch but fundamentally deficient in what most of us would consider to be basic humanity... he tries, i'll give him credit for that but, honestly, he would be a lot better off if he didn't try... he always ends up sounding like the embarrassing relative that nobody likes to be around that you had no choice but to invite to your wedding...

And, yes, I DO take it personally 

Those of you who think he has no empathy for the wounded need to look at this item that didn't make the news - Bush fulfilling a promise to go on a jog with an amputee.  It didn't make the news because Bush kept it a private matter.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bush_mcnaughton.htm

Well....he sent troops into battle without armor, but at least he went for a jog with an amputee.


That about sets it right, I guess.

Well, he wasn't really elected either time. He can take the silver spoon that's up his nose & put it up something else.

The Bush family is well known now for their crassness.


Georgie jokes about not finding an WMD.


Momma says the poor blacks from New Orleans have a good life in a football stadium.


Model American family, if you ask me.

Who did the laughing after he said it? I suppose morphine can control all sorts of pain.

Kept it a private matter. Like when the White House released the photo to the press and posted it on the White House web site.

It's a nice gesture, no question. Just don't pretend he didn't try to make political hay out of it.
Pronunciation problems with "wounded"? Huh?
It's a nice gesture, no question. Just don't pretend he didn't try to make political hay out of it.This took place in April of 2004 - an election year, remember.  If Bush had wanted to make political hay out of it you would have seen it in campaign ads, their jog would have been filmed and broadcast on TV, there would have been interviews with the soldier, you would have seen him as a guest at the Republican convention etc. etc.  But you had never heard of it until I linked it here, had you?The press release gave the soldier recognition.  The way it was handled shows that it was anything but a political stunt.    

What is it your trying to say, there goes that liberal press again never reporting on anything good the president does. Do you think this makes him appear more human? Compassionate? 

Could you imagine or maybe he did, the reprecussions if he had refused to jog with this man? 

But then again maybe your the shill reporting this Newsflash

  

From the News Tribune,


http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/5377590p-4863252c.
html


‘“WASHINGTON – President Bush has signed legislation providing more funding for medical services to military veterans.


Despite the increase, critics say the new Veterans Administration budget may not be enough to meet the growing demand on a health care system already strained by the needs of soldiers, including Guard and Reserve, returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.


“It’s barely adequate,” said Dave Autry, a spokesman for Disabled American Veterans. “Unless something is done to shore it up, we anticipate they will be back asking for more.”


And Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle), who has complained that the administration and Congress were underfunding VA medical care, said she remained frustrated…


…The pressures on the VA’s budget will increase as more soldiers return from overseas and the cost of rebuilding VA facilities in the Gulf Coast damaged by Hurricane Katrina mount, Murray said. The senator also said there is talk of a 2 percent across-the-board cut for all federal agencies, while the basic costs of providing health care continue to increase.”’


 I guess that speaks for itself but read the article and see how Bush is using the money in a shell game, Bush is all show and no go.

One old reference book I treasure is my 1947 Murray's Guide to India -- the last of the guide books written for a newly posted colonial. 

Anyhow, as one of the bits and pieces of what it's worth to look for on the voyage out -- they offer this ancient poem. 

"God and the Soldiers all men adore
In time of battle and no more
When War is over and all things righted,
God is forgot and the poor old soldier slighted."

Thomas Gordon, 1612-1685 -- found in the Guardhouse at Gibraltar. 

Here is a little piece of Bush history circa 2003,


http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/05/25/loc_VAhealthcare.html


“Soon, tens of thousands of veterans will come home from the Iraqi war, be discharged with honor, and have a gift waiting for them - free health care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for two years.


It used to be a lifetime guarantee.


Hundreds of thousands of veterans of earlier U.S. military conflicts might also no longer qualify for VA health care or might be forced out by rules proposed by the Bush administration to relieve an overburdened system. The changes would increase veterans' out-of-pocket costs by increasing co-payments for out-patient care and prescription drugs, as well as require many to pay a $250-a-year enrollment fee just to stay in the VA health-care system.”


Moving back to 2005 Here is a piece from Salon which doubtless reflects the results of Bush’s efforts,


http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:QxgXX1DP3zsJ:www.salon.com/new
s/feature/2005/10/26/suicide/+va+benefits+bush+%22cut%22&hl=e
n


“On Oct. 8, Greg Morris, 57, was found by his wife, Ginger, in their home in Chama, N.M., an old mining town of 1,250 in the Rocky Mountains. Lying at Morris' side were a gun and his Purple Heart medal. For years, Morris had been receiving monthly V.A. benefits in compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. Next to his gun and Purple Heart was a folder of information on how the V.A. planned to review veterans who received PTSD checks to make sure those veterans really deserved the money.


Last spring, the V.A. began to quietly draw up plans to take another look at nearly 72,000 veterans who from 1999 to 2004 had been classified as disabled and unemployable because of mental trauma from war. The V.A. plan, about which Salon was the first to report on Aug. 9, would review previous decisions to grant disability benefits to veterans incapacitated by PTSD.


Veterans advocacy groups are irate, charging the department with trying to save money at the expense of the men and women traumatized by war. They say mentally troubled veterans will be shocked, hurt and afraid of losing their monthly checks.”

Bush is not just out of touch because he went from a life insulated by privilege. He is also stupid. This post shows that when confronted by a trgic reality of war that he is incapable of either understanding or facing it. If he gets scratched "defeating" a cedar he thinks he has set a heroic example. Steady on, Boy George.
What is it your trying to say, there goes that liberal press again never reporting on anything good the president does.

No, what I am saying is that if the President wants to get things into the news, he does the things that I listed in the earlier comment.  If he just has his guys post a picture on the website and hand out a release he's NOT trying to get it into the news.

Hundreds of things like that go out of every White House each year:  every time he appoints a judge, administration appointments below the cabinet level, when he meets with trade associations, etc.  I have a friend who is an architect who has a picture of himself with Bill Clinton and a press release as he had a 10 min meet & greet with a "green" architecture group. Those are file-stuffers and memorabilia for the meeters, not the President's attempt to get good press.

I heard this story on talk radio in summer of 2004 and never saw anything about it in the news at all.  I had forgotten about it until I saw L. Johnson's post on Bush's insensitivity and ran a Google search that got the hit I posted.  I'm nobody's shill - just a fair-minded person.

  

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