Refelections about MSgt. Kenneth Hunt Jr, USMC, our dead and wounded, and about a President out of touch with what is going on.

The first repost of my musings was originally posted back in August of 2005, right upon my return from Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where I visited a wounded warrior, a friend, and a now fallen hero to so many who knew him. I was very angry when I returned and hated the Iraq war more than ever.
The second repost (original post from August 2005) are my thoughts about Cindy Sheehan's trip to and stay at Crawford, Texas, demanding an answer from the President, who again, seemed to have been living in some sort of paralel universe, refusing to acknowledge even for one minute, the pain and suffering caused by "his" war.
The third repost, originally written as a reaction to the President's visit to Brook Army Medical Center in January 2006, sums up how I felt seeing this man at this location moking the wounded by pointing out his "wounds" secondary to not being able to walk a straight line.

"HOW FAR AWAY IS CRAWFORD?" (originally posted on Thursday, 4 August 2005)
Bear with me on this one. This July has been bad in many ways. Both kids were sick with UTIs and Rota Virus respectively. I have not gotten much sleep, because I was busy doing laundry at odd times of the night and feeling sorry for myself. At times I had to step back and think about how good we really have it, a few poos here and there, a couple of doctor visits and better we are. We got better, but some of us did not. By some of us, I mean, servicemen and women.
The last Sunday of July 2005, I volunteered to make a phone call to one of our spouses that I expected that I had to make at one point but dreaded to make. I had to ask the spouse how she was doing after learning that her husband has been severely burned after his vehicle hit an IED somewhere in Iraq. I think that somehow I found the right words, because we managed to cry, laugh, and share some stories together. At one point after that, when I learned that this remarkable Marine wife was going to Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, Texas, I suggeted to my husband in theatre that I was considering going out there to be with her and help her out when the family members and our beloved Gunny left. Hubby said, "go" and here I am booking plane tickets. Thankfully, I have the most wonderful friends in San Antonio as well, and they were immediately "enlisted" for help, they did not fail me a second, I guess, they have been a military family for so long that they just understood.
So, in order to "prepare" myself for what I was going to see, I searched the good old internet for burn trauma, most of it was first aid and medical stuff beyond my understanding. So off to San Antonio. This wonderful wife wanted me in her husband's room. So, I am scrubbing down, got the surgical gown on and in I went. He looked good, thus far, everything considering. His face was HIS face, but many in that burn unit were not that lucky. It was shocking to see that on a Sunday afternoon. I never realized how much a tiny squeeze of my hand could mean so much, I never realized that coughing is great when one is intubated. I never realized that it is necessary to be in 97F to not be cold when 50% of the skin is burned.
Monday morning, back to the base, got some groceries for the wife as she was just running back and forth between the burn unit and her room at the guest house and surely not even thinking about eating. This was when things hit me fast. As we approached the hospital entrance, we saw "babies", not youngsters, but teenagers whose adult life has just begun, without an leg, an arm, or both, burned beyond recognition, with helmets, to help heal the head wounds, help heal the missing piece of skull that has been replaced by a piece of metal. See the mother my age carry out children my kids age, and whose kids cried for their "daddy". I told my friends there that if I see another kid without a limp, I was going to scream and not going to stop. Well, I saw more, did not scream, and was just shocked. I have never in my entire life combined seen so much misery and human suffering in six hours.
At one point I was asking my San Antonio friend how far away Crawford was. I knew this president was on his nth vacation there, and I wanted to go there, drag him to the burn unit to see the misery, he hurt, the pain, the screams, the faces burned beyong recognition. The youngster, whose adult life has been cut short in many ways by losing a limp, or two, or three, who is managing somehow scratching his back with his new artifical leg. Sad. Really sad. Pain and human suffering. Our Marine was covered in gauze, laid in the "cruzifix" position to keep him from pulling lines of sorts out of his body that are keeping him alive. The only dignity he had left was a tiny little green towel to cover his private parts. I remember taking a break outside from visiting with him when I saw a mother my age, carrying out two boys my boys's age, and boys screaming and crying for their daddy, and all I could think was, "this could be me". It wasn't me. I was lucky, but someone wasn't and someone is responsible.
Mr. President, you "landed" on some carrier over two years ago and proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" and this week you said that the troops that have died, died for a "noble cause". What do you mean by that? I though "mission accomplished" took place when you imporsenated a REAL pilot like my husband, to further some agenda that I don't understand. If the cause is that "NOBLE", why are your children not in Baghdad or Najaf or Mosul? Answer those question to Cindy Sheehan, who is at your ranch, just wanting to know why her son died?
Mr. President, I don't want to be a hateful person, but I have become one. I hate you, for putting our service men and women in harms way for what the Project of a New American Century told you to do. I hate you for not suffering the same way we do. I see a family torn apart by the burns one Marine has suffered. I hate you for not scrubbing up and holding a hand of someone who just has involuntary reflexes. I hate you for disrupting my family in as much that we need to learn to be a family again. I hate you for not welcoming home those in a coffin, who will be burried in the name of your ghastly smile of threats of weapons of mass distruction, when you KNEW they were not in Iraq.
However Mr. President, I offer my sincere congratulations for making the facts fits your fiction. For making Iraq the breeding ground for "insurgents" from whereever, which it has not been before, even by assessment of your own CIA. Mr. President, I congratulate you on making my husband, the father of my children, be a sitting duck for attack. Let me ask you, when was the last time that you wore body amor, a gun, a pistol, to walk some distance to relieve yourself from what you need to do? Do you UNDERSTAND Mr. President?
Mr. President, two years ago I was in the minory, I have been told to shut up. But now I am in the majority of people who "disapprove" of your handling the war on terror, Iraq, the economy, and pretty much every thing else. You are a chickenhawk, you are not a cowboy. You said "Bring them on" and now one of our own is at BAMC (do you even know what these letters stand for???), a few hours away from you.
Mr. President, answer Cindy's questions, don't be the coward you have been years ago, give us a plan, so our families can be like yours, "NORMAL"

Wednesday, August 24, 2005
THE TROOP SUPPORTERS VERSUS THE ANTI WAR MOM
This morning, as I was driving home, I listened to one of our local radio stations. During the regular programme, one of our local TV stations gave a quick run-down on what was happening in Yuma. One of the main news-stories this morning was that the "anti Cindy Sheehan" cararvan was coming through Yuma from their starting point in Fresno, California, on their way to Crawford, TX, to counter demonstrate Cindy Sheehan, who has been (with a brief interruption to tend to her sick mother) camped out in front of President Bush's "Ranch" for over two weeks now. In this brief presentation, Cindy was referred to as the "Anti War Mom" and the other group as the ones supporting the troops. This short newscast sounded very biased, not only to me, as I have received a few phone calls regarding the "biased" way in which this news was presented, e.g. Cindy as the madwoman out on a political rampage versus the "true" supporters of the troops (like the guy who ran over the crosses of Arlington West).
Upon returning home, I phoned the particular newstation here in Yuma and requested to speak to someone in the newsroom. I finally got some real person on the other line and the whole conversation was pretty much one-sided as it was a chance for me to speak off the record (e.g. my name can't be used but the content of the message can) and vent off thoughts that have been mainly bottled up over the last few months).
The main points that I have tried to cover were the following:
I started off by explaining to him why I found the particular radio broadcast biased and misleading. I explained to him that if he really listened to Cindy's message in Crawford, it would become very clear that she would like to have her questions regarding the now infamous Downing Street Memos answered, an issue, which has been largely ignored by the mainstream press. Second, Cindy's remarks regarding the non-existing stockpiles of WMD in Iraq, again, and issue not much elaborated on in the main-stream media. Third, the non-existing link between Al-Queda and Iraq, and the the fact that Iraq only NOW has become a breeding ground for the ever-stronger growing insurgency (as by recent assessments of the CIA). My main point was, that the media has neglected these issues as they have neglected to question assumptions by this government after September 11, which have ultimately led this nation into two wars with casualties mounting almost daily in both Afghanistan and Iraq. I literally accused him of having sold out to the propaganda that happened during the built-up for the war in Iraq, by selling out to the fear-mongering of this government instead of questioning and helping us perservere and keep a spirit of dissent as well as resistence to the "forces of evil".
My next issue was why the counterprotesters were portrayed as patriotic and troop supporters while Cindy Sheehan and the assorted members of groups such as Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans against the War, Veterans for Peace, Gold Star Mothers for Peace as well as Code Pink were labeled as an instrument of the far left. I explained to him that I have been a member of Military Families Speak since before the present conflict in Iraq and that I have gotten death threats because I did not follow some prescribed line of love of country by questioning this war and questioning the motives for engaging in it. I conveyed to him that I find it utterly absurd to even suggest that I am not supportive of the troops when my husband in this war and my main concern is to have him home safe, along with his fellow service members. I told him that it is insane to even suggest that I don't support the person that I love, married and intend to spend the rest of my life with. I assured him that Cindy's supporters, many of whom have travelled long distances to get to Crawford, feel the same way.
I also raised some concern about the "yellow ribbon people", those who have put the yellow ribbon on their car or whereever, but think that it is enough to display this particular token but do nothing else to support the people who are actually fighting the war on their behalf. I explained that patriotism and support the troops does not mean to wrap oneself in a flag and chant for the troops when we sent them into harms way (I give someone else credit for that, I believe it was Tom Paine), it means that we have to look at them when they return home, minus and arm or leg, burned, or a combination of both. If we do not do that, we dishonor them big time, not only as individuals, but we dishonor ourselves as a society. We dishonor ourselves as a society when we do NOT question Secretary of Defense when he asserts that "another 12 years" in Iraq are possible for Coalition forces. What does that mean? It means the number of years of formal schooling for a child in America. It means more in years that my child are of age combined. It means that my oldest son could potentionally be drawn into the conflict. We dishonor ourselves, when we do not question conflicting statements made by members of our government, e.g Mr. Rumsfeld comment, Mr. Cheney's statement, that the "insurgency is in its last throes", some General who thinks we need more troops, and another one that says the troop level is fine, and a President who says "we will stay the course" (whatever that is at the time he says it). A President, whose first premise was ridding Iraq of WMD, then regime change, than and election and now the drafting of a constitution as well as fighting the insurgents when he said to "bring them on". A president who says that it "would be a mistake to leave early." Earlier than WHAT?
We will keep out message out there loud and clear, we support the troops, we love this country whose founding fathers' values we hold so dearly as "truths" and whose rights we so cherish. We thank so much the troops who are defending this right for us. On a final note, maybe we should look at the whole Crawford situation from a constitutional standpoint, Cindy, and even her counterparts, are now sitting in Crawford facing each other, each of them exercising their First Amendment Right to Free Speech and Assembly that family members of each side have been ordered to defend, and that some have given their life for. Cindy does not understand the noble cause, I don't either, and many others don't either, and many do not want to believe that their family member has died in vain, however, as I explained to the gentleman on the receiving end of my "talk", should anything happen to my husband, I would feel his death was in vain and that I would never been able to describe the reasons why to his two sons.
The message is out there loud and clear and even if we completely disagree with the counter-demonstrators in Crawford, I am proud to say that really none of the so-called "radical left-wing groups" have yet even remotely resorted to the level of name-calling of the "right", people like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hannity. I can say that, because I have listened to these two Gentlemen a lot lately. When they and their followers use the word "Liberal" almost as an insult when they run out of well-made arguments (that is, if someone from the other side is actually able to get through their "screeners" to get on the air), my question is: since when has a particular political orientation became a "criminal" act as Ms. Coulter claims in her works "Treason" and "Slander"? Since when has honest dissent become an act of subversion and undermining patriotism and aiding the enemy? This country was founded on the basis of dissent, dissent of absolute rulership in Britain, without dissent, we all would still be paying the Tea Tax (thanks to the folks in Boston in 1773, we don't do that anymore.) When people call me a liberal I take that as a compliment, I feel I find myself in the company and spirit of our founding fathers, great thinkers of the political enlightment, what company do they find themselves in?
To paraphrase Al Sharpton at the Democratic National Convention: We will keep on marching, we will keep on working, and we will keep on trying. To all of those in Crawford supporting Cindy, I would love to be there with you (am there in spirit), but due to circumstances in my life are unable to attend. I will continue to spread the message that Cindy and us have further and further and not stop. Thank you Cindy for having given many of us a voice.

Saturday, January 07, 2006
Wounded, the President, this is
This morning (January 7,2006), reading my usual news related stuff on the internet, I found a video link on the Crooks and Liars webpage (http://www.crooksandliars.com) showing our glorious president talking to some staff at Brook Army Medical Center (BAMC) during a visit there last week. This particular video was titled "wounded". Now, initially I thought that something useful and empathetic would escape this man's mouth, especially considering the locale where he was. I expected too much. After watching this short clip, I needed to pick my chin up from the floor, and then after a few moments of complete and utter disbelief that I have just heard what I heard, I replayed it, and replayed it again. We have heard a lot of "Bushisms" in the past five years, but this one was probably the worst for me. Ok, for those not able to get to this video, here is the main point of Mr. Bush's short "speech": he was thanking the staff at BAMC and then pointed out that he was "wounded" as well after having some run-in with a cedar tree while simultanously pointing to some spot on his forehead.Again, this man was at BAMC in San Antonio. I have been to BMAC, and after having seen what I have seen there, the misery, the young amputees, those burned and in recovery and my friend Ken in the intensive care burn unit, I wonder whether Mr. Bush was really there. I think that if he had seen what I and many other visitors and family members and friends of our wounded troops had witnessed, he would not have uttered such absurdity in less than one minute. Here is a president, who at hardly ever leaves out a chance to speak in front of military personell, almost rediculing and minimizing what they have sacrificed: a limp, maybe two, a piece of skull, their skin, half of their brain. I have never in my life seen one person exploit the finest men and women that this country has to offer, joking about their physical injuries by pointing out that he is obviously too stupid to walk a straight line without missing a tree. Talking like this in front of the men and women in one of the most honorable profession that there is, men and women who are willing to give it all, is a shame. It is a shame for most of us with working morals and a sense of when to keep one's mouth shut and not to joke. My mom taught me that, keep your mouth shut when nothing useful can come out of it, what has Barbara done? Told you to keep on yapping? BAMC is NOT a place to joke, unless initiated, which your "joke" didn't seem to have been. I wonder how the doctors and nurses felt when they listened to their commander in chief? I wonder what they were thinking? I wonder if they wanted to trade places with Bush for a day? Spending a whole morning to change the dressing of a burned man. Bagging a man with an oxygen pump for hours, sitting and waiting. Doing rehabilitation therapy with a 19 year old to help him learn how to substitute the functioning of one finger with the functioning of a normal hand? Trying to teach another 20 year old how to walk, again, on prothetic limps? The level of care and caring, the level of humanity despite the inhume consequences of this war by the staff at BAMC is something that anyone ill can only hope for. These doctors and nurses and therapists don't give up, smile, and encourage our wounded. After two days there, I left in complete disarray and at times I am still suffering from nightmares about what I have seen. The crying for hours until I could hug my kids again and cry to my friends. The anger at the senselessness of it all. Mr. President, apologize, apologize to those wounded, apologize to the family members of those of have died at BAMC. Apologize to my friend who after a seven months deployment, interrupted his vacation with his family to accompany and escord his friend home in a flag-draped coffin, the ones that you, Mr. President, don't want us to see. Apologize to the staff, who have treated our friend during his 11-week stay at BAMC, who operated him 22 times in 78 days, to keep him going. By the way, his last operation was a leg amputation, but even that could not safe him. Apologize to his widow, who was bedside with our friend, hoping and praying she won't be a widow, who saw not only her husband die, but witnessed on a day-to-day basis the pain of others in this hospital. Apologize to those who never left the widows side for a week to help out and who tried to take just a little bit of her pain away. Apologize to those who have been there and witnessed this injury of one of our finest, a husband, a father, and a wonderful friend. Apologize to those who heard the 21 gun shot salute to a fallen hero, that is our friend by the way. Mr. President, I don't believe that someone who can't avoid a tree without being "wounded"should be leading 300 million people, should not "command" the most wonderful men and women that this country has to offer who have made sacrifices that you have absolutely no idea about: separation from family, spouses and children, holidays and other family events spent apart, young men without limps and burned, leaving them with a future that was probably not what they had envisioned for themselves, and paying the ultimate price for almost 2,000 of young lives cut short. I am just angry now, very angry, Mr. President, maybe because you have not been at Ken's funeral. Maybe because you have not seen his mother breaking down when she said her last good-bye before the coffin was closed one last time, maybe because you have not seen Ken's wife not moving away of his body for days, cherishing the last minutes she had with the love of her life. Maybe because you have not seen the pain in his children eyes, maybe because you will never understand that his daughter's birthdays in the future will be very different, as Ken died on her birthday. Maybe because you have not seen hundreds of Marines in tears (they usually don't cry, you know), maybe because you have not seen wives holding hands thinking, "that could have been me" when watching a widow clutching the flag. Mr. President, apologize, if you can't be seriously touched in front of cameras, don't visit a war hospital again, these men and women there are worth much more and deserve much better than what you offered during your visit there. They are worth being appreciated, and not being rediculed by you, their commander in chief, for sending them in harms way. Repeatedly, again and again.