Yesterday I sat down with iconic television personality Phil Donahue for a conversation about his acclaimed documentary Body of War. The film tells the story of a U.S. soldier severely wounded in Iraq and the difficult journey he's navigated following the attack.
My full conversation with Phil Donahue airs Thursday night on most PBS stations.
When I think about the present situation in my country I am brought to the brink of tears. Words fail me as I try to think of ways to describe how I feel. Shame, anger, resentment, shock, horror, none of them can convey the enormity of my feelings about all the damage that Bush and his teams of criminals have rained down on us, the US.
This is indeed a dark time in our history. Maybe the darkest ever. I wonder if we will ever recover the economic strength we once had, the prestige we once enjoyed in the world community, the moral high ground that gave us the right to ask better of others, the very soul of what was once America.
The Grand Old Party has eviscerated my country.
!
These people will have scars for life and we treat this like bad weather-temporary. It's not. If there had been a draft and the politicians sons and daughters had to go, believe me, things would be far different.
The cavalier attitude in dealing with our wounded is appalling. I'm not a champion of this war and was against it from the start but because this administration sold it as if it was a video game and the whole country bought into it, it is our collective responsibility to take care of those wounded, especially those who are treated like unwanted detritus. And no one epitomizes the untold suffering more than the young man featured in the film. All I saw was his relentless pain and his complete loss of dignity. I can't imagine how anyone who has given so much could be treated so shabbily .
We are being led by war criminals who should be sent to the Hague for trial. Unfortunately that won't happen and all of us, who didn't want this disaster in the first place, are saddled with the consequences in the world wide court of human opinion.
It's a painful and embarassing time to be an American.