John F. Youmans is a retired USAF major and a well decorated disabled Vietnam Veteran who served at Bien Hoa AB from 1966-1967. Mr. Youmans served 30 years in the USAF. Since his military retirement in 1993, Mr. Youmans has become a well published journalist and a reporter for the Daily Record in Dunn, N.C. for several years when forced to resign due to his health and disability stemming from Hodgkin’s Disease and Agent Orange. Mr. Youmans continues, however, to write articles for newspapers across the nation from home. In addition, he is a featured columnist for Military.Com and staff writer for several other Internet web sites including www.supportthevets.com, www.usdr.org and several others. Mr. Youmans has taken the task of advocating improvements for veterans’ benefits as a personal goal.
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Tim Russert did an admirable job during his interview of our present president, George W. Bush for "Meet the Press" Saturday. But the end result was anything but an offensive win for a very defensive President Bush.
If that is the best he has to offer with no opposing candidate present, the Democratic candidate should have no problems debating him when both are present. It looks like the Democratic nominee will be Sen. John Kerry, who also leads in national polls to replace Mr. Bush.
President Bush lost an opportunity to boast a new or revised offensive strategy in his fight against terrorism. He lost a golden opportunity to convince the country there have been mistakes and they will be corrected during his second term. Instead, he just repeated the present rhetoric and included a lot of the neo-con Project for a New American Century (PNAC) ideology that will continue to destroy our country.
It is apparent there is no way to measurably improve our economy by election time, but it would have been good for the country to hear Mr. Bush was going to at least work on it during his second term if reelected. But he seemed quite happy to continue his global project of forcing democracy throughout the Middle-East, no matter what.
It would have been good to hear that even though our intelligence was wrong and therefore, what he told the citizens of the country was wrong, he would begin to bring our troops home and let the UN ensure a Democracy in Iraq. It would have been nice if he talked about the more than 500 military members who followed his orders and died, the several thousand wounded troops and what he was going to do to ensure they are taken care of properly instead of continuing his goal to decrease their health care and benefits.
One question Tim Russert asked was of particular interest to me, and seemed to throw the president off guard for a few seconds. "Now looking back, in your mind, is it worth the loss of 530 American lives and 3,000 injuries and woundings simply to remove Saddam Hussein, even though there were no weapons of mass destruction?" Mr. Russert said.
Mr. Bush finally said it was, after considering the question for a few seconds.
If I were a loved one of any of those brave patriotic troops killed, wounded or disabled for life, I would be deeply insulted and hurt. That is not why they were sent to war. They were lied to. Yes lied to. The Iraq War was undisputedly planned well before 9/11.
Those brave troops were told they went to Iraq to defend their country against an approaching threat to this country, not to just remove Hussein from office and open up the Middle-East for US exploitation. For more, research Project for the New American Century.
The Project for the New American Century, or PNAC, is a Washington-based think tank created in 1997. This group of neo-cons demands the establishment of a global American empire to bend the will of all nations. They abhor the idea that the United States, the last remaining superpower, does not do more by way of economic and military force to bring the rest of the world under the umbrella of a new socio-economic Pax Americana.
Somehow, I am sure if any of these Chickenhawks in DC were asked if a death of one of their loved ones would be worth it, the answer would be a resounding "No". But they will make no such sacrifices. They would rather think, "We the few, the rich, the elite, are born to kill, not serve."
When the president was asked if the Iraq War is a war of "choice" or a war of "necessity" in light of not finding the weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Bush decided not to give his previous response of, "What’s the difference?" and said it was a war of necessity. "In my judgment, we had no choice when we look at the intelligence I looked at that says the man was a threat. As you know, we will find out about the weapons of mass destruction that we all thought was there," Mr. Bush said. But that is not what Mr. Bush said at the time. That is not why are sons and daughters are dying.
I have no doubts weapons will be found and that Bin Laden (many are saying Bin Hidden) will be found, just before the 2004 elections. I have confidence in the divisive ways and imagination of Karl Rove.
In conclusion, what worries me the most is that Mr. Bush plans on continuing his devastating ideology during his next term. "I have got a vision for what I want to do for the country. See, I know exactly where I want to lead. I want to lead us, I want to lead this world, toward more peace and freedom. I want to lead this great country to work with others to change the world in positive ways, particularly as we fight the war on terror."
When asked the biggest issues in the upcoming campaign Mr. Bush said, "Who can properly use American power in a way to make the world a better place, and who understands that the true strength of this country is the hearts and souls of the American citizens, who understands times are changing and how best to have a policy reflect those times."
The above comments prove to me it’s more of the same PNAC ideology to dominate the Middle-East at the cost of the lives of our brave patriotic military members who continue to die and become disabled at an alarming rate. To make it worse, while Mr. Bush waves the American flag of democracy across the world, behind the scenes he is attempting to reduce the health care and benefits of the military members who are doing the fighting. (Click here to view the related article.)
The Bush administration doesn’t say much about the servicemen and women dying and injured for life in this continuing war that sure looks like another Vietnam to me. The public is prevented from seeing the dead returning home. And the media is very remiss in its lack of coverage of the thousands of wounded returning with gross injuries that are not being publicized. They should be. The media needs to show the human cost to this war.
A nurse at Walter Reed Army Medical Center recently wrote a letter for Military Families Speak Out and this type information should be available to every American citizen. We can’t let this administration continue to sit back and ignore it. Here is what she has to say:
"I am an Army Nurse Corps Captain stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington D.C., and I feel compelled to share with anyone who will listen what I have seen. You see, when OIF troops are evacuated out of Germany, the huge majority are brought here to WRAMC by the Air Force flight nurses and docs. I do not have access to any of the numbers of how many wounded and what types of injuries, etc, but I can honestly tell you that the OIF wounded occupy more than half of our two major intensive care units (SICU and MICU) at any given time.
At times, we get so full and are expecting more to arrive, that we have to hound the docs to transfer somebody out of our unit to a ward upstairs so we have some beds for these soldiers. Most of these wounded soldiers come in to our unit on a ventilator breathing for them, with severe wounds caused by IEDs (improvised roadside bombs) or AK-47 GSW (gun shot wounds).
Many, many soldiers have already lost arms, limbs, or eyes before they even get to us, and many have received dozens of units of blood before they left Germany. I am very proud that I am privileged to take care of these brave men and women, but it breaks my heart to realize that their incredible loss that they and their loved ones will have to deal with for the rest of their life seems to have not been for the good of our country.
Rather, their pain and sorrow has merely allowed a few greedy souls to make a power grab for more wealth and control.
One of my dear friends has tried to convince me that this is all part of God's plan, and the death and pain is for some greater purpose that our leaders are not telling us yet. I wish I could believe her. It would make my job and daily life much easier, but I cannot buy it.
I apologize to the reader for my tangential thought processes, but this never ending situation is getting to many military nurses. Anyway, the following is my main point in reaching out to you.
As you might be aware, the press is being tightly controlled and what is being reported from a medical standpoint is only a fraction of the true reality. Yes, I do believe the daily number of killed that CNN and whoever report is accurate. What I am saying is that the walking wounded are being sorely ignored. Don't believe me? Walter Reed is an open base, not a tightly controlled fort. Just have a valid ID and consent to a vehicle search. Then park, and walk inside. You will see so many 20 something mostly men missing arms, legs, and eyes. The blinders covering your eyes will be ripped away as you see the poor families making their daily walk from the Malogne House to the wards and units to see their son's or husbands.
It is so sad to see young wives and fiancé’s cry over their honey who was in Iraq less than one month before losing both legs and have several abdominal surgeries which leaves his belly crisscrossed with staples, and now he is fighting for his life from the infection that the injuries have caused. And that is just one example of what I saw this week. I will spare you any more wrenching true stories.
God help our men and women in uniform. Please do something to end this madness."
Let’s get a new president who is not a puppet for Dick Cheyney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Bill Kristol, and others with their monstrous scheme that sets out a new doctrine that calls for U.S. power to be used as an aggressive and unilateral approach that would secure American dominance of world affairs by force.
I personally prefer John Kerry who is dedicated to helping the country and veterans, but anyone but George W. Bush. I would vote for Mickey Mouse or Super Man first -- you remember Super Man, "Truth, Justice and the American way."
