Damn. I am such a wreck. Here I am a spat upon...figuratively speaking...Vietnam vet in my 6th. decade who is resigned to raling against the staus quo. I very honestly would be quite happy to fade into the night with two exremely successful children, a loving wife...one who has put up with too much PTSD shit...and my ever present PTSD. To those of you who doubt the psychic trauma of PTSD, may I first say fuck you on behalf of my precious family and secondly tell you that PTSD really does exist. We have seen the tip of the iceberg in this regard, because the future vets of Iraq and Afghanistan who have served multiple tours in their respective hell holes will make my generation of PTSD seem like chicken crap.
I feel a need to state that in spite of my PTSD...nightmares and all...that I have acheived a modicum of peace by spending my every adult year attempting to help others as a nurse practitioner. I'm imperfect and defensive, but I love my patients. My below listed diary will be sans statistics, sans references, but with all of the candor that I am capable.
I apologize..make that ignore...the purists on Daily KOS who disrespect those who do not meet their self-appointed standards,
I was percolating along quite well when we had the tsunami of 2000 whereby George Bush defeated Al Gore by the mechanism of hanging chads. I was, of course, incensed by this, but I should also have been informed by this because this was only the first example of Dems being sold down the river by their own as evidenced by Al Gore conceding prematurely.
I resigned myself to 4 years of Dubya, and then came the tragedy of 9-11. One could argue myriad conspiracy theories about 9-11 and who am I to say any of these conspiracy theories are wrong? However, I chose...and continue to choose...the high road;i.e., that we were viciously attacked by Islamic extremists on 9-11. Initially, the entire world, including the people of Iraq were incensed by this attack and were on our side. I watched as Dubya and his minions churned us up for war.
One may be critical of Dubya's Administration on many fronts: economic and otherwise. One may be super critical of the lies and innuendo that Dubya and the Repubs used to take us into unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bottom line was that Bush lied and our soldiers, as well as countless Iraqi and Afghani civilians, died.
Here we find ourselves in 2010 with the Dubya economic and war legacy. I mourn much, including Iraqi and Afghan civilian casualties, our brave soldiers casualties and deaths and the loss of the support of other countries. I was extremely optimistic when Pres. Obama was elected. It was my understanding that Pres. Obama and the Dems, et. al., would stand up to the Repubs and set things right with regard to wars of choice, unwarranted killing of civilians and the needless sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform. My bad. I was totally wrong. Pres. Obama and his Dem minions could give a shit about innocent lives and innocent killing and maiming of our military.
I am so saddened by the above. More and more, I become convinced that it is time to support a third party, such as the Greens...though they are rough around the edges....
May your respective God...I am at best agnostic...bless you. May your respective God bless those Iraqi and Afghan civilians killed because they had committed the henious crime of having been born in Iraq or Afghanistan. May your God bless our brave soldiers who have been killed or maimed...with regard to maim, think scar tissue or worse from the waist down.... May God bless our families who have had loved ones killed in these wars of choice.
I am a simple man. Age reminds me of how simple and how stupid I am and have been. My only recourse is to do what little I can to battle for the rights of our sons and daughters, my children and my grandchild.