Posted on 04/22/2015 12:47:33 PM PDT by Timber Rattler
News of Americas military men and women were wounded and killed in Iraq and Afghanistan almost overwhelmed me on some days. I may have sounded strong when I was talking to the press, but sometimes I had to push my feelings way down in order to get any words out of my mouth to make statements and answer questions.
The hardest days were when President Bush went to visit the wounded or families of the fallen. If it was tough for me, you can only imagine what it was like for the families and for a president who knew that his decisions led his troops into battles where they fought valiantly but were severely injured or lost their lives.
He regularly visited patients at Walter Reed military hospital near the White House. These stops were unannounced because of security concerns and hassles for the hospital staff that come with a full blown presidential visit.
One morning in 2005, Scott McClellan sent me in his place to visit the wounded warriors. It was my first time for that particular assignment, and I was nervous about how the visits would go.
The president was scheduled to see twenty-five patients at Walter Reed. Many of them had traumatic brain injuries and were in very serious, sometimes critical, condition. Despite getting the best treatment available in the world, we knew that some would not survive.
We started in the intensive care unit. The Chief Naval Officer (CNO) briefed the president on our way into the hospital about the first patient wed see. He was a young Marine who had been injured when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. After his rescue, he was flown to Landstuhl U.S. Air Force Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany. At his bedside were his parents, wife, and five-year-old son.
(snip)
The soldier was intubated. The president talked quietly with the family at the foot of the patients bed. I looked up at the ceiling so that I could hold back tears.
(snip)
As he hugged the boy, there was a commotion from the medical staff as they moved toward the bed.
The Marine had just opened his eyes. I could see him from where I stood.
The CNO held the medical team back and said, Hold on, guys. I think he wants the president.
The president jumped up and rushed over to the side of the bed. He cupped the Marines face in his hands. They locked eyes, and after a couple of moments the president, without breaking eye contact, said to the military aide, Read it again.
(snip)
But there were exceptions. One mom and dad of a dying soldier from the Caribbean were devastated, the mom beside herself with grief. She yelled at the president, wanting to know why it was her child and not his who lay in that hospital bed.
Her husband tried to calm her and I noticed the president wasnt in a hurry to leavehe tried offering comfort but then just stood and took it, like he expected and needed to hear the anguish, to try to soak up some of her suffering if he could.
Later as we rode back on Marine One to the White House, no one spoke.
But as the helicopter took off, the president looked at me and said, That mama sure was mad at me. Then he turned to look out the window of the helicopter. And I dont blame her a bit.
One tear slipped out the side of his eye and down his face. He didnt wipe it away, and we flew back to the White House.
yeah I’m gonna get killed for this but it was a petty dictatorship when Saudi Arabia should have been leveled. Our men’s lives are worth so much, spending them there was not, in my opinion, the right move.
And Dana is for gay marriage and Jeb. She is a stuttering idiot on The Five. ‘
I’ll say even more. I have a brain injury and its terrible. And these guys got so much worse head injuries for IRAQ? How many of the guys on 9/11 were from there. How many from Saudi Arabia?
Bush was awesome. Those anklebiters that chased him during his 8 years as President weren’t good enough to wipe the guy’s nose.
Say what you want about Bush’s policies he loves this country and its military. He is a class act.
You’ll only get support from me. Sadam was a bastard, but he only cared about his own power. The Saudis house and promote and ideological enemy
good! I was terrified of getting kicked off as a newbie but I had to say it.
During the late 60’s I went to Military hospital a couple of times, I was a ARNG Lt. at the time, I felt so out of place there seeing the troops in the ortho ward. I was visiting a friend of a friend, a USMC Pvt who had lost both of his legs. He kept telling me if they would give him legs to walk with, he would go back to Nam, and join his buddies. That brought tears to my eyes.(All I had at the time was a platoon of ARNG guys who for the most part were there for only one reason.)
Agree 100%. A pox on these warmongering globalist neocon pukes. The entire population of the middle east save Israel is not worth one drop of American blood. Just my 2 cents.
I miss having a good man in the WH.
lol!! I only feel for the Christians being killed. God forbid we give them refugee status. No matter what anyone says, this is a Christian country and we should be taking in our own
Dana is a ditz. Cannot abide her on the 5. She’s great at being W’s press secretary, but she is no one I look to for an opinion on anything.
Gorgeous, smart, conservative, gorgeous again, tea partier, Dana is a neocon.
Bush would have ended ISIS in 6 months.
Agree.
King Brak would have her arrested, investigated, and harassed.
Look up Salman Pak terrorist training camp.
Nothing happened within Iraq without Saddam’s knowledge.
I’m of an open mind, I am looking it up right now
sorry man, the evidence doesn’t sound that compelling. Seems it was determine that it was an Iraqi Counter terrorism training center, and defectors claiming it was a terrorist training camp were discredited.
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