Maimed Soldier: Changes Mind Since He Last Talked To Bush-Now ?s Iraq War

[kpete]

A Soldier Maimed by War Now Questions the Mission
by Brian MacQuarrie

WASHINGTON - President Bush came and sat by the side of Sergeant Brian Fountaine, a 24-year-old tank commander from Dorchester, a gung-ho soldier who had lobbied to be deployed a second time. Now Fountaine was among the wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, his legs amputated below the knees after an explosion June 8 ripped apart the Humvee in which he was riding.



Sergeant Brian Fountaine, 24, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington this week, was injured in June while on patrol near Baghdad. (Jay Premack for the Boston Globe)



The president chatted about the sergeant's beloved Red Sox, but made no reference to the war, the soldier said.

If the topic had come up, the president might not have liked what Fountaine had on his mind. In a dramatic change of heart, Fountaine now considers the war a military quagmire in which American soldiers are caught in a deadly vise between irreconcilable enemies.

..................

``You have to wonder, what exactly are we doing?" Fountaine said. ``In my opinion, is a country that has been at war with itself and with other enemies for thousands of years. And we're supposed to make them happy? I don't think so. I don't see it happening."
much more at:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0802-10.htm

[dipsydoodle]

1. Notwithstanding anything else

that is a terribly sad picture.

[malaise]

3. I am sitting here

looking at that 'baby' and can't find words to express my emotions. Fugg Bushco.
sp.

[Tinksrival]

2. Oh how heart breaking.

His quote sums up alot.

``You have to wonder, what exactly are we doing?" Fountaine said. ``In my opinion, is a country that has been at war with itself and with other enemies for thousands of years. And we're supposed to make them happy? I don't think so. I don't see it happening."

[Drum]

4. More hearts and minds....nt