War vets have Bush on the run

Source: (UK) Daily Mirror

War vets have Bush on run
"By Anton Antonowicz, US Correspondent 27/07/2007

Two amputee war veterans jogged President George Bush's conscience yesterday as they joined him for a run at the White House.

Max Ramsey lost a leg in Iraq last year and Sgt Neil Duncan lost both of his in Afghanistan in 2005.

Their meeting came six months after dire standards of care in the US Army's main hospital in Washington were exposed in the press.

Mr Bush, who launched a commission and vowed to act, said: "We owe wounded soldiers the very best."

For their sake let's hope he delivers."




Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/07/27/war-vets-have-bush-on-run-89520-19528312/

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In the paper version, there is a hilarious version of Bush flanked by the two amputee war veterans on their prosthetic legs, as he does his jogging, and another one with Bush's arms around their shoulders.

he take care of them for their service in his fucked up war.

those soldiers. Bush** looked like a confused ugly fool. I can't find the picture, it was an AP picture.

the man knows no shame

this photo-op was staged because of his insensitive remarks a few days earlier in Tennessee when he cavalierly and insensitively said of a double amputee

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=6813018

This event was a quickly-scheduled pr move, once again using the soldiers as props, trying to quickly cover up the fact that many are horribly and permanently disfigured and disabled by showcasing two of the luckier ones.

They are thuggish War Criminals and murderers

Bush. Then I realised that they would never been able to get near him, and it had to be a perverse PR stunt.

a militarist-imperialist stooge.

Does it Matter?

Does it matter?—losing your legs?...
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter ?—losing your sight?...
There's such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.

Do they matter?—those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you're mad;
For they'll know you've fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit.

Siegfried Sassoon

Is there more to it, or is that it?

Either way, very powerful, especially the last stanza -- PTSD was around long before it had a name.

That is the whole thing. It absolutely captures that easy dismissal of the trauma (no need to worry about losing a leg - you can get an artificial one and run in the Olympics or with GWB etc.Stop making such a fuss.)
There are many other great angry Sassoon poems though.
PTSD was neurasthenia or shell shock in his time.
Sassoon had PTSD - (he saw the faces of the dead on the pavement in front of him.)T
he film Behind the Lines outlines his PTSD and his meeting with Wilfred Owen at a military psychiatric hospital. The film is based on Pat Barker's great novel Regeneration.

He has got to be the most evil, twisted man to take breath since Hitler bestrode the earth. His eternity will be spent haunted by the million people whose deaths he's caused.

hoping he eventually stands trial in the Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. That may seem a vain hope right now, I'll grant you, but I'm also sure few people predicted Nixon's resignation in June of 1973 either.