G.W. Bush

I got a call from my son today. Billy is the son who was wounded in battle in Iraq just outside of Baghdad in 2006. He has shrapnel in his neck and shoulder, still. He has had surgery on his leg and it is well again. He is suffering from, and has been diagnosed with, Traumatic Brain injury (TBI). Consequently he now has a type of Tourette Syndrome and suffers from "tics", sort of involuntary jerks or sudden movements. I am happy I still have my son.

Anyway Billy called to tell me that he has been informed, by the Army Medical Board, that he is being retired with a 50% disability. My son understood the risks of being a career Army soldier. He had seen me serving in the Marines almost his whole live as a young man. It seemed a natural transition for him when he decided to make the Military his home. He also had the understanding that the Army too understood and accepted their responsibilities to him. That part hasn’t worked out that well. Our President must not have factored in the cost of wounded soldiers when he let us borrow the money from China to wage war in Iraq.

The new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad must be deaf, dumb and blind. He ran the United States Embassy in Iraq for two years and never noticed the U.N. was there the whole time? Now he is announcing that the U.S. welcomes the presence of the U.N. in Iraq. I attended a few meetings with the U.N. members in Iraq, and the fact is, as far as I could tell, we didn’t want anything to do with them. The Bush Administration duplicity and pretence is showing here.