Laura and George Suffer, So Much, So Terribly, Terribly Much, at the Deaths of U.S. Soldiers in Iraq

Technorati Tags: Pres. Bush, Laura Bush, Ann Curry, Purple Heart, Texas Air National Guard

If you want to see a fine example of the "liberal, antiwar press," you must watch NBC's Ann Curry urge Laura Bush on as the latter tells Curry how much she and her husband "suffer" at the carnage in Iraq:

Curry (in an unctious, oily voice): You know the American people are suffering, watching--

Laura Bush (interrupting): Oh, I know that, very much, and believe me, no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this, and certainly the commander-in-chief, who has asked our military to go into harm's way.

Curry: What do you think the American public need to know--

LB: Well, I hope they do know the burden of worry that's on his shoulders every single day for our troops, and I think they do. I mean, I think if they don't, they're not seeing what the real responsibilities of our president are.

Curry (in a tragic voice, looking as if she's about to cry): It must be hard for you to watch him in this.

LB: Well, it's hard, of course, it's absolutely hard--

All this presidential suffering must be what Bill Thomas had in mind when he gave Pres. Bush a Purple Heart:

Bill and Georgia Thomas reported they were elated Monday when they met in the Oval Office with President George W. Bush to present him with a Purple Heart.

"We were just absolutely bowled over. Without reservation, it was one of the highlights of our life. He was such a gracious host," Thomas said. "It was just an incredible, incredible experience."

The couple was able to meet with President Bush for about 20 minutes to present him with one of three Purple Hearts that Bill Thomas received during his service in Vietnam.

"He said he didn't feel like he had earned it," Thomas said, noting the president looked thinner in person than on television.

The Thomases also were able to meet Barney, the president's Scottish terrier, and tour the White House Rose Garden.

Thomas said he and his wife came up with the unprecedented idea to present the president with the Purple Heart over breakfast one morning a few months ago as they discussed the verbal attacks, both foreign and domestic, the commander in chief has withstood during his time in office.

"We feel like emotional wounds and scars are as hard to carry as physical wounds," Thomas said.

Via Mike Finnigan at Crooks and Liars. Finnigan observes:

This story is jaw-dropping on all kinds of levels. Consider: Then-Congressman George H. W. Bush used his considerable political power to jump Junior to the top of a list of over 500 applicants for his Texas Air National Guard position as a pilot, despite his receiving the minimum passing score on the pilot entrance aptitude test, and listing no other qualifications. In a 1994 interview, Bush stated that he joined the Guard because "I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes." After the American taxpayers paid $1 million to train the young aviator, he went AWOL.
[...]
Apparently, Mr. Thomas has failed to notice how the president and his henchmen treat decorated veterans. John Kerry isn't the only military hero victimized by BUSHCO's vicious smears. John Murtha, John McCain, and Max Cleland are other notable cases. Mr. Thomas has a right to do whatever he wishes with his medals, but George Bush, a man who likes to dress up like a soldier but didn't want to be one, a man who still hasn't attended a single fallen soldiers' burial, had no right to participate in this grotesque sham.

Nor does Laura Bush have the right to use a word like "suffering" to describe how she and her husband "feel" when they watch the reports of U.S. troops losing their lives or their limbs or their minds in Iraq:

“No one suffers more than their President and I do”? Are you that vain and self centered, Laura? Have you been dipping into the pills again? Do you have ANY idea how it feels to lose a child? A spouse? A parent? A limb? To watch death and destruction every single day? Up close?

Do you live with PTSD? Do you get whatever medical care you need whenever you need it? Do you have flashbacks of narrowly dodging bullets or IEDs? Have you seen a friend killed right in front of you (oops, scratch that – you caused that one yourself)? Do you have recurring nightmares of bloodshed and bombs falling all around you nonstop?

Have you lost all of your possessions and watched your community fall apart due to a hurricane that everyone else in the world saw coming? Do you have to work two to three minimum wage jobs, just to barely pay the bills? Have you had to choose between purchasing medication for you or food for your children?

Have your children been sent on multiple tours to fight a war that was based on lies? Do you have to wait months just to see a doctor? Do you have to postpone or not get a surgery that you would need to save your life because your insurance doesn’t cover it? Has a family member lost their job because someone blew their covert status as an undercover agent working for the United States?
Have you had to take a job that paid half as much with no benefits because your old job was moved overseas? Have you lost your medical coverage because you could no longer afford it? Do you have to live in fear that every day could be the day that you are killed by an enemy in a country that you have no business being in to begin with?

Have you had to bury a child whose life was needlessly cut short? Did you ever receive a phone call from a loved one to let you know that they are stuck in a burning building with no way out? And then hear that they had to jump 85 stories to their death because it would cause them LESS suffering? Have you found out that the US Government has lied about the circumstances about a family member’s death for propaganda purposes?

Have you had to declare bankruptcy due to mounting medical bills, only to drown under the crushing debt? Have you ever had to beg for food because you were homeless? Have you had to hold your dying friend’s hand after his or her body armor failed to stop a sniper’s bullet?

Have you had a family member be rounded up off the street, flown to another country to be tortured, only to be released without charges? Have you been held indefinitely as an “enemy combatant” even though there is no reasonable cause or any charge filed against you?

Suffer? SUFFER????? You can’t even begin to fathom the immense level of suffering that your husband and his administration have caused. To this country. To the Iraqis. To our troops. To future generations.

You should be ashamed. You should be disgusted. You are a disgrace.