"Bush is an ANGEL!"

[Kaatje]

Bush is an Angel? Now there is something you do not hear everyday. This was uttered by a wonderful medical professional from a kleptocratic, corrupt, ex-USSR country run by the mafia. What most people forget who do not like America, Bush, Clinton or current politics, is that this is the land of the free. Where do people want to immigrate to, legally or illegally? It is the good old US of A. Even working in McDonalds or on minimum wage in the US is considered much better than the alternative (staying in Africa, or ex-USSR, or Mexico).

One day before visiting Venezuela last year, my always reliable Economist magazine informed me that I had no right, by law, to criticize Chavez as a visitor. Of course, any visitor to our country can stand on any street corner carrying protest signs like: "I hate Bush" or carry bumper stickers. By the way, the Economist is the only news magazine that continues to report weekly on African and Asian countries that you have never even heard of and it's political and social landscape.

Just food for thought, the above statement from someone who knows what it is like to grow up in real corruption and in fear of her life. Mostly, the issue is one of imagination or experience, as most critics of the US have not been raised in a totalitarian government, or in a socialistic paradise. Despite America's problems, most of you would not want to immigrate to ex-USSR, or Europe, or Canada. (And why is it that illegal Mexicans or other immigrants stay in the US instead of moving towards our socialist Northern neighbors?).

If you choose to do so, you will loose your freedom to go back to school as a non-traditional student, you will be discriminated against based on age and disability, and I am talking about Europe. Never mind the kleptocratic, corrupt, tribal or Sharia run countries, marked by the boat people who drown by the hundreds to try to get into Europe, and if they were closer to the US they would go here. There are tons of books on what it is like to live in a corrupt totalitarian world, so stimulate your imagination. Have you actually visited a country like East Germany before the wall fell, and seen family members carry in bananas because for decades there were none except for the Communist Party members? Have you heard what tribal life is like for women in police states such as Morocco, let alone Yemen?

However, I do not dispute that grave errors have been made by the US in the Middle East, they should have gone in which much more force and old fashioned tanks versus the much lighter Humvees. And of course, many other errors as well. I also do not think that the US is perfect, with it's freedoms come responsibility that a lot of Americans cannot handle, such as lack of immunizations, smoking, obesity and other social/cultural factors, one of them being the lack of access to birth control to prevent teenage pregnancies. That's why I truly hated 'Juno', which was Sundance glamour for teenage mothers, and which portrayed an unrealistic portrait of the average teenage mom as well as a Planned Parenthood clinic. Teenagers are going to be sexually active and need comprehensive sex-ed, something that some politicians and interest groups rightly demand. Abstinence only is ridiculous! But have you considered the incredibly vast landmass that the US is? And how hard it is for a teenager in say, an hour away from Lordsburg to get to a PP clinic? My country has the lowest teenage pregnancy rates, but it is the size of New Jersey and you can bicyle or take the bus or train to a clinic for confidential birth control or the Plan B emergency contraception.

Health Care Reform: not going to happen in our generation, if ever. If we want socialized medicine similar to Canada or the Netherlands, we will need to cut down on expensive tests such as MRIs and CTs and others. We will also need to change the law to make suing hospitals and doctors illegal. What do you think are the chances of that? In my mother land, National Healthcare and Socialized Medicine is only possible because no one can sue a doctor. You can try, but even for an amputating the wrong leg the doctor gets a slap on the wrist, keeps his or her Medical Degree and the patient get perhaps 1000 dollars. Yep, you heard that right.

But if just feels so good to shout like a populist that we all deserve National Coverage etc. What the current candidates fail is explain to the public that as long as we can get sued until the patient is 18 years old (in OB/Gyn and this is why docs deliver less and less babies) and we need to keep doing $10,000 work ups in order to cover ourselves against potential lawsuits, the US can allow nor afford National Health Care. Patient with shortness of breath, most likely a panic attack from taking a thorough history and doing a physical exam: ER visit, CT Scan with Contrast, lab tests and EKG. Woops, 5000 dollars. Only to ensure that if the patient leaves after all tests were negative, in the 0.000001% chance that the patient does have a Pulmonary Embolism and does die at home, the family cannot sue the hospital for 15 million dollars. Sad, but this is the reality of modern medicine and politics, and your wonderful candidates do not explain this to you, because 'if only the US was more like Europe, we would all be living in paradise'.

Oh, and what about waiting lists and the poor-rich contrast? In Europe, the waiting list for anything from a fast growing brain tumor to a hip replacement is between 6 months and a year, and so richer people who can either afford the surgery themselves or who have a better health care plan, go to Germany, Belgium or France. The waiting time is also long because OR personnel is understaffed, and there are not enough Philippe nurses in Holland because they all go to the US.

The graying of the population combined with a shortage of qualified workers (lots of young, healthy adults on the dole who have no incentive to go to school if they can live off the government), spells a disaster in another ten to fifteen years. The rich in my old country do get a much better health care plan, because they can afford it. There is the mandatory basic plan, around 100 dollars even for minimum wage, and you can add services if you are rich enough. A nice Canadian movie about this subject is "The Barbarian Invasion".

But if you really want Health Care Reform and National Coverage, start bombarding your congress men and women as well as the current political candidates with requests to make suing illegal or have a 2000 dollar cap on any human, medical mistakes.

[Kaatje]

Well, the Iraqi War and the problems in the Middle East (lots of young angry boys and no jobs, and adults seducing teenagers to strap bomb to their chests), is not a World War Three perse.

But it is The Conflict of Our Generation, and we are standing on the threshold of holding on to our freedoms or losing them to a medieval thought system, indoctrinated to young souls, by terrorists who went to upper and middle class schools, often abroad. It reminds me of the rich, nasty Communist who preached equality while dining on champagne and caviar, just like Kim Jung-il.

You could watch "Submission", this innocuous little movie made by an ex-muslim with female genital mutilation and a Dutch film maker who was murdered for it. Was that a good enough reason to murder Theo van Gogh? The kid was a third generation Dutch Moroccan!

And if I had the time I would tell you what it is really like growing up a Moroccan (a moderate state, still a police state), because of my sister-in-law Latifa. If that movie does not make you cry and see how this thought system is pure evil of the worst kind, well, you need to judge for your self. But Christians are not exactly running to kill people because of jokes about Christianity, are they?

I am an atheist worse than Richard Dawkins, but even I can tell what danger can come from those who remain uneducated and indoctrinated by a religion that does not value life. Sending their own children to die by suicide bombing is beyond, absolutely beyond words. What words describe that kind of behavior? Did everyone forget 9/11?

[Kaatje]

There are a couple of great movies and documentaries about the Iraq War: "War Diaries", "Bagdad ER" and "In the Valley of Elah". Although I only watched the last one because it was filmed in New Mexico. How weird was that, seeing Tommy Lee Jones on Central Ave again and Josh Brolin as a sheriff, just like "No Country for Old Men".

The last movie really is what a great movie is, to understand the pain of war and the loss of lives. The cost of freedom is not cheap. I also wanted to let you know that every soldier I have met during my clinical rotations wants the US to stay.

[Dan Latrimurti]

I'd suggest that for anyone with a desire to know this war through the eyes of soldiers that have been there, then take some time to read, listen and watch http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier.

When we first invaded Iraq I was more or less in favor of the action, but shortly thereafter I got my eyes opened about how absurd the governments explanation of the 9/11 attack was, which caused me to dig deeper, until now I am firmly of the mind that we need to withdraw from Iraq now and give these people their country back.

[Kaatje]

"The War Diaries" also is a real view of three National Guard guys who were given camera helmets to document their year in Iraq. Chilling. But let's not forget that American female soldiers are given babies by Iraqi moms who would rather give their child away than let it grow up in misery. Hey, why did Angelina Jolie did not adopt an Iraqi child when she was there?

Final Words in this Off-Topic Discussion?

This is a reply to everyone who thinks there was a conclusion or a point to my original essay of "Bush is an ANGEL": there is none. They are just my thoughts, coming from a Dutch born and raised person who lived and traveled to 50 countries, from East Germany to Tokyo and everything in between, but I do love the States more than I can explain.

I am so incredibly happy with the opportunities that were given to me in this country. I am disabled and use a wheel chair for my studies, work and recreation, and a cane to navigate my 800 sf home. I would have withered in my perfect social/democratic country with national health care because they do not allow crips like me to study Medicine. And maybe someone with less ambition and perseverance in my situation would have liked living in the Netherlands, getting government disability money and have a part time secretary job, but that is not me.

I love medicine and think it is amazing that I have the honor and the opportunity to help people and practice medicine as a Physician Assistant while being disabled. For more views on medicine and rural poverty in the US, I refer you all, and especially Bleve, to my blogs on studying medicine on the Navajo Reservation.

We, all of us sitting here behind our computers on DCF do not even know how good we have it. We have it all, and take too much for granted.

Peace.

[bleve]

"For more views on medicine and rural poverty in the US, I refer you all, and especially Bleve, to my blogs on studying medicine on the Navajo Reservation."

Thanks, its interesting to have someone from another country explaining to me what's going on in my own backyard... I think that information would be better directed at your "conservative" brothers and sisters.

My grandmother's family traces their blood lineage back to generals in the Spanish army, her sister married into the Zia Pueblo and I spent my childhood going to their fiestas and feast days. To this day my family is welcomed with open arms by our relatives in Zia.

I'm intimately familiar with life on the reservation. I'm also intimately familiar with access to health care on the reservations across this state and the barriers to access that poor, rural families face across this state as I work with the community health centers that serve these areas.... and by the way I'd say that you have a very skewed and uninformed interpretation of how the Navajos view their deceased.

"The traditional Navajo are easy to spot in the waiting area of the hospital. They look like they are 100 years old due to the sun exposure, and have unusually friendly and beautiful faces."

Apparently you see no relation between these "beautiful faces" and the million or so Iraqi civilians that have been killed in this illegal war and occupation... I know, I know, "Freedom, liberty... don't know how good we have it", yes I'm familiar with all the talking points... yet there are still a million innocent people dead, and there are still people saying that its justified... and there are still people being tortured and held without warrant.

Maybe its because you come from a place that held no regards for human rights but the US that I was raised in took that seriously, and for people to chastise those that call our gov't out for perpetrating the same crimes that our young soldiers are supposedly fighting against... well, it only takes a little bit of objective thought to figure it out.

And by the way, while you're embedded in the poverty and misery that is much of the Native American way of life today, why don't you ask yourself how a mighty people came to such a state... if you think really hard you may be surprised to find that many of your sentiments were being shouted on the hilltops while our gov't wrapped women and children in blankets infected with smallpox.

"I am an atheist worse than Richard Dawkins, but even I can tell what danger can come from those who remain uneducated and indoctrinated by a religion that does not value life. Sending their own children to die by suicide bombing is beyond, absolutely beyond words. What words describe that kind of behavior?"

And what exactly are my brothers and sisters being sent to die for? Does murder by missile sound more civilized to you? I'll let you in on a little secret, if the disenfranchised of th world had million dollar weapons supplied to them by the taxpayers of another country, they'd probably use them instead of seeing their children blown up... murder is murder whether someone is a suicide bomber or whether they send a missile from hundreds of miles away... no one has the ethical high ground while murdering innocents.

"Did everyone forget 9/11?" No, perhaps they're thinking about it with the complexity and with the sanctity of life that it deserves.

[Scott]

Bleve,

Obama wins and the US withdraws troops.

I am curious as to your thoughts on the aftermath in Iraq.

[bleve]

Well, I don't think if they'll be withdrawn even if Obama wins.

I'd say its a tough turd to polish... how do you create peace and stability in a region that was ravaged illegally and without warrant?

I do think that if we as a nation like to talk about freedom, self-reliance, and pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps why not let the Iraqi's give a try at governing themselves... novel idea eh? If need be, use UN forces for stability in the transition period.

The sunnis and shiites were actually living peaceably next to one another under Saddam.

But none of that will ever happen... we're not building the biggest American base on the planet not to be there.

I do think that those who subverted the constitution of the us and led us into war on false pretenses and sent thousands of our brothers and sisters to die needlessly should be held accountable.

Isn't accountability one of those supposed hallmarks of American conservatism... funny how it seems to get lost in the shuffle... especially when there's about a scandal a week.

[Sarah Anonymous]

legal war???

[Scott]

"I do think that if we as a nation like to talk about freedom, self-reliance, and pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps why not let the Iraqi's give a try at governing themselves... novel idea eh? If need be, use UN forces for stability in the transition period." The sunnis and shiites were actually living peaceably next to one another under Saddam."

The Shiites and Kurds might have a different view of peace than you do. That doesn't completely justify our actions, but let's be fair millions of people had already died via biological weapons and paper shredders and millions more were likely to follow suit. You are right on point about self-governance, but I think we need to give the Iraqi government the support they need to be successful. After all, we did start this and the accountable and responsible thing to do would be to see it through to a successful and not to distant future end. I have no reservations about Iran's intentions in the region and we need to consider that when looking at exit scenarios.

"Isn't accountability one of those supposed hallmarks of American conservatism... funny how it seems to get lost in the shuffle... especially when there's about a scandal a week."

Accountability, privacy issues and fiscal responsibility are completely out the window at this point. And a good bit of this falls on the last congress....but this topic is for another post.

Thanks for responding.

[bleve]

And another thing to point out is that this type of "war" and occupation leads to infinite unseen problems in the future for the region. In regards to the Kurds and Shiites, a lot of their issues stem from the British arbitrarily coming up with borders and regions based on their self-interests.

Concerning biological weapons, yes Saddam used them at one time... like they say, we know cause we have the receipts... and he was our man in Baghdad. The US didn't give one iota of a damn at the time about the Kurds.

Seems to me like the defense contract business is booming and war is and always has been a business... it would be great to think that this was for some noble cause but in the end I think we all know its about $$$.