Blogging Blue

Have you seen this picture before?

The photo, taken in March 2003, has become one of the most iconic images of the U.S. invasion of Iraq: that of an American soldier carrying a wounded Iraqi child to safety. The photograph of Army Private First Class Joseph Dwyer was used by news outlets around the world. In a tragic twist, PFC Dwyer collapsed and died last month after abusing a computer cleaner aerosol. After returning from Iraq, Dwyer was plagued with sometimes violent delusions that he was being hunted by Iraqi killers, and despite his obvious problems, Dwyer’s issues were never wholly addressed by Veterans Affairs:

After a PTSD program in Durham, N.C., turned Dwyer away because of a lack of space, Maureen Dwyer said her son received inpatient care for six months at the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center, beginning last August. After doctors discharged him in March, she said, his anxieties returned with such intensity that Dwyer’s wife, Matina, 30, took their daughter Meagan, 2, and moved out five days later.

After her son was discharged from Northport, Maureen Dwyer said she was especially concerned because there were no VA mental health facilities near his Pinehurst, N.C., home.

There’s no denying Joseph Dwyer did receive treatment for his mental health issues, but where was the aftercare and followup? Where were the doctors and programs to ensure Joseph Dwyer continued to receive the help he needed for his mental health issues? What’s more, why wasn’t more done to properly plan for the return of soldiers like Joseph Dwyer? At the risk of getting up on my soapbox, there’s absolutely no reason why any soldier suffering from PTSD or a related mental health issue should have to wait for appropriate services because of a lack of space.

Here’s what Joseph Dwyer’s mother has to say about the situation:

“Every second that goes by, there is another soldier just like Joseph,” Maureen Dwyer said. “Another family can’t go through this. All the politicians talk so great about the soldiers, about patriotism, but mental illness is something they are not putting enough into.”

And that’s the true cost of the war in Iraq: the tally of lives lost or irreparably altered due to the serious mental health issues faced by soldiers returning home from the field of battle.

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I know the story itself is a few days old, but it’s still worth mentioning.

Despite every indication that our economy isn’t doing as well as many Americans would like, President George W. Bush seems to think there’s a lot of positives about the economy:

“When will the economy turn around? I’m not an economist,” said Bush, responding to a reporter’s question. “But I do believe we’re growing. I’m an optimist, and there are a lot of positive things about our economy.”

That’s a statement I wish I could ask President Bush a few questions about, because I’d like to pick his brain to find out what exactly he thinks are the “a lot of positive things” about the current state of our nation’s economy. Heck, for all we know, maybe President Bush sees gas at four dollars a gallon, rising grocery prices, failing banks, and a rising unemployment rate as positive things.

Now I’m no economist, so I don’t presume to have the answers to all that ails our economy, but I do know one thing - the solution isn’t maintaining a constant state of denial - as we’ve seen from President Bush, nor is the solution a John McCain Presidency.

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…like the fact that Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore. At a press conference yesterday, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain referenced Czechoslovakia, apparently forgetting that Czechoslovakia split into two countries more than 15 years ago:

“I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.”

Now sure, it could be an honest error on McCain’s part, except for the fact that he’s referenced Czechoslovakia more than once during the campaign. Back in October 2007, McCain also referenced Czechoslovakia during a Republican Presidential debate:

“The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care what his objections are to it.”

Again, these could be just honest mistakes on the part of John McCain, but am I the only one bothered that a candidate who’s made such a big deal of touting his foreign policy expertise while attacking his opponent’s lack of similar experience can’t seem to remember that Czechoslovakia hasn’t been a nation in over 15 years? After all, it’s not like the nation split apart just yesterday; it hasn’t been a nation since the Clinton administration!

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As I said yesterday, Republican Presidential nominee John McCain has had a bad week.

I’ve already mentioned the shenanigans of surrogate Carly Fiorina and campaign economic advisor Phil Gramm, not to mention McCain’s own blatant pandering during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, but now comes news the McCain campaign has scrubbed its website of any mention of Alabama Attorney General Troy King, who the campaign had previously announced as the Chair of the McCain 2008 Alabama campaign.

Why was any mention of Troy King scrubbed from the McCain campaign website?

Well, I’m no rocket scientist but I’m guessing it has to do with rumors he was caught in bed with another man by his wife. Obviously it’s just a rumor, so I could be wrong, but it’s curious that the McCain campaign would take the step of removing any mention of King from its website if there wasn’t the slightest grain of truth to the rumors.

If the rumors are true, the McCain campaign will no doubt start spinning the situation furiously, but no matter what, it’s been a bad week to be John McCain.

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John McCain has had a bad week.

And when I say John McCain has had a bad week, I mean he’s had a really bad week.

The week started with former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, a top McCain surrogate, discussing health care, only to veer sharply from the McCain campaign’s talking points to a discussion of Viagra, while in the process seeming to stake out a new policy stance for Senator McCain:

“Let me give you a real, live example, which I’ve been hearing a lot about from women. There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth control medication. Those women would like a choice,” she said.

Now that statement strikes me as a blatant attack on health insurance companies for providing coverage for Viagra while denying coverage for birth control - a curious attack given the fact that John McCain has twice voted against measures that would have required insurers to cover birth control.

Now as if Fiorina’s “creative license” wasn’t bad enough, then came comments from John McCain’s top economic advisor, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, who called the United States “a nation of whiners” while also referring to the current economic slowdown as “a mental recession.” Now maybe I’m crazy, but it seems like more than a “mental recession” when gas stands at $4.00 a gallon, milk’s somewhere near $3.50 a gallon, and our nation is losing 50,000 jobs a month.

Not to be outdone by his surrogates, McCain himself took time to stick his foot in his mouth while he pande…campaigned in Pittsburgh:

When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup — defensive line — of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates.

But wait, what did McCain say about his time as a POW in Vietnam in his book Faith of My Fathers?

Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron.

Now he, I know pandering is a part of politics, but is John McCain stupid enough to think no one’s going to do a little fact-checking? I know he’d like to rewrite a lot of his own personal history, but when will he learn that’s easier said than done in the age of YouTube and the internet?

H/T to Jay over at Folkbum.

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