Another damn * photo op - pics

[Kadie]

Iraq War wounded U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard waits to meet U.S. President George W. Bush from his wheelchair at the airport in Columbia, South Carolina, November 2, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)


President Bush, right, greets Iraq War veteran Lt. Andrew Kinard, left, during his arrival at Columbia Metropolitan Airport in Columbia, S.C., Friday, Nov. 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)


Iraq War wounded U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard (L) poses with U.S. President George W. Bush from his wheelchair at the airport in Columbia, South Carolina, November 2, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)


President Bush, right, greets Iraq War veteran Lt. Andrew Kinard, left, during his arrival at Columbia Metropolitan Airport in Columbia, S.C., Friday, Nov. 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)


Iraq War wounded U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard (L) meets U.S. President George W. Bush from his wheelchair at the airport in Columbia, South Carolina, November 2, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)


Iraq War wounded U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard (R) watches U.S. President George W. Bush from his wheelchair after meeting him at the airport in Columbia, South Carolina, November 2, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)

[MiniMe]

1. Doesn't take him long to turn his back on the soldier, does it?

A metaphor for how Bush treats the troops in general?

[babylonsister]

2. He has no appreciation of the irony, he has no scruples. nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. He has no empathy either. And it shows, no matter how many of these staged photo ops

george attends.

[thereismore]

3. gets his pics, then turns his back on him. typical. nt

[lpbk2713]

19. Now watch this drive ..... n/t

[nightrider767]

4. Very Sad

In the last picture he was looking at George's legs,,,,,, with envy.

I salute him.

Love or hate the war, I respect the men and woman who had to give so much.

[frylock]

10. whoa..

fucking heartwrenching.

[zabet]

5. This pic speaks volumes to me....

cannot help but think that the soldier is looking a *'s legs.....

[Supersedeas]

9. yep....moving right along...ought to be the cover picture of every major magazine in America

[cdb]

15. What can that idiot possible say to the soldier?

I mean really? Is it scripted or do they let him just blurt shit out?

[SoCalDem]

6. One of these men is only "half a man".. It's the "tall" one.

:cry:

[DS1]

8. Total missed cock-punch opportunity

DAMMIT

[berni_mccoy]

11. Last pic says it all.. legless marine watching Bush's legs as he turns his back on him.

[Whisp]

14. the man is thinking: Wish I had something to kick that sorry ass with

[FightingIrish]

12. I can only imagine what tasteless nickname

* gave this Marine hero.

[HughBeaumont]

13. "Yeah, hope you get to keep your arms on your return trip!"

"Now if you'll 'scuse me, I have some important rich people to talk to. Fuck off, now . . ."

Proud of yourselves, Republicans?

THIS is what YOU'RE responsible for, assholes.

[Quantess]

18. Bush-lovers would say that, no, this soldier

willingly enlisted, so he can only hold himself accountable for what happened to his legs.
The point is lost on repuke Bush-supporters.

[lpbk2713]

16. Q: If Boosh could take the time to see this Marine why couldn't he see Max Clelland

... when Max went to visit Smirky in Crawford?



A: Because this was a set up photo-op, that's why.

[Ezlivin]

17. Who needs legs when you have a sharp uniform and shiny medals?

General Smedley Butler was right:

Napoleon once said, "All men are enamored of decorations . . . they positively hunger for them."

So by developing the Napoleonic system -- the medal business -- the government learned it could get soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be decorated. Until the Civil War there were no medals. Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed out. It made enlistments easier. After the Civil War no new medals were issued until the Spanish-American War.

In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join the army.

So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side . . . it is His will that the Germans be killed.

And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies . . . to please the same God. That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious.

Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the "war to end all wars." This was the "war to make the world safe for democracy." No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a "glorious adventure."

Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats, it was decided to make them help pay for the war, too. So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a month.

All they had to do for this munificent sum was to leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in swampy trenches, eat canned willy (when they could get it) and kill and kill and kill . . . and be killed.

But wait!

Half of that wage (just a little more than a riveter in a shipyard or a laborer in a munitions factory safe at home made in a day) was promptly taken from him to support his dependents, so that they would not become a charge upon his community. Then we made him pay what amounted to accident insurance -- something the employer pays for in an enlightened state -- and that cost him $6 a month. He had less than $9 a month left.

Then, the most crowning insolence of all -- he was virtually blackjacked into paying for his own ammunition, clothing, and food by being made to buy Liberty Bonds. Most soldiers got no money at all on pay days.

We made them buy Liberty Bonds at $100 and then we bought them back -- when they came back from the war and couldn't find work -- at $84 and $86. And the soldiers bought about $2,000,000,000 worth of these bonds!

Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill. His family pays too. They pay it in the same heart-break that he does. As he suffers, they suffer. At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel burst about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly -- his father, his mother, his wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and his daughters.

When he returned home minus an eye, or minus a leg or with his mind broken, they suffered too -- as much as and even sometimes more than he. Yes, and they, too, contributed their dollars to the profits of the munitions makers and bankers and shipbuilders and the manufacturers and the speculators made. They, too, bought Liberty Bonds and contributed to the profit of the bankers after the Armistice in the hocus-pocus of manipulated Liberty Bond prices.

And even now the families of the wounded men and of the mentally broken and those who never were able to readjust themselves are still suffering and still paying. (From "War is a Racket")