paralyzed soldier wants clarification from Bush

[montana500]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15herbert.html?oref=login


Paralyzed, a Soldier Asks Why
By BOB HERBERT

Published: October 15, 2004


ALE CITY, Va.

Sunlight was pouring through the doorway to the furnished basement of the neat two-story home on Reardon Lane. The doorway had been widened to accommodate the wheelchair of Army Staff Sgt. Eugene Simpson Jr., who was once a star athlete but now, at age 27, spends a lot of time in his parents' basement, watching the large flat-screen TV.

I asked the sergeant whether he ever gets depressed. "No," he said quickly, before adding, "I mean, I could say I was sad for a while. But it didn't really last long."

Sergeant Simpson's expertise is tank warfare. But the Army is stretched thin, and the nation's war plans at times have all the coherence of football plays drawn up in the schoolyard. When Sergeant Simpson's unit was deployed from Germany to Iraq, the tanks were left behind and the sergeant ended up bouncing around Tikrit in a Humvee, on the lookout for weapons smugglers and other vaguely defined "bad guys."

He said he felt more like a cop than a soldier.

[sui generis]

1. damn traitor to his country

how DARE he question der Fuhrer? /pissedoffsarcasm

I am the child of a military serviceman and a German woman. What in the HELL is the problem with bringing his family here? That's so unbelievably absurd it boggles my mind.

That guy should be asking a whole lot of other questions besides why were we there, and he should be doing it in front of the cameras, a lot.

[Moderator]

2. montana500

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