BUSH: WAR SKEPTICS “PROPOSE NOTHING.”
January 12, 2007 by Mike Ferner
Dear George,
Here’s a proposal from a certified “war skeptic.”
GO FUCK YOURSELF!
Visit Iraq — and not the Green Zone! See what life is like for Iraqis and for the soldiers you’ve sent there. Stay a few days—no quick photo op and back home. Be sure and drink the water.
When you come back, go to Walter Reed Army Hospital and visit the ortho ward. Not just a quick little photo op, but stay for a week. You can do it. You stay in Crawford longer than that and the government keeps going. So go to Walter Reed—or better yet, go to a burn unit at a military hospital. Don’t do the glad-handing politician bullshit. Empty some urine bags. Change their skanky dressings. Hear the moans. Be the one to tell them it will be “just another hour” until their next pain med. Breathe it all in.
Then when you’re done, go to a V.A. hospital and visit a “back ward.” Spend a week there. See the guys from Nam and Panama and Gulf War I and wherever else the government sent them. No speeches. Just listen. And tend to them. Turn them twice a day to keep their flesh from rotting. Clean out their feeding tubes. Empty their colostomy bags. Put on a rubber glove and dig an impaction from a quadraplegic’s cramping bowels.
THEN hold a Rose Garden news conference and say this war is worth one more person’s life or health or family. Tell us that if you can.
If you can’t, get the hell out of here.
Mike Ferner US Navy Hospital Corpsman 69-73
(A couple days later, I received the following response from the White House. Something tells me Dubya didn’t read my letter personally.)
–— Original Message –—
From: comments@whitehouse.gov
Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 8:18 PM
On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence. We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions. The President is committed to continuing our economic progress, defending our freedom, and upholding our Nation’s deepest values.
Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House cannot respond to every message. Please visit the White House website for the most up-to-date information on Presidential initiatives, current events, and topics of interest to you. In order to better receive comments from the public, a new system has been implemented. In the future please send your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov.
Thank you again for taking the time to write.
