President Bush's recent gaming session with wounded Iraq war veterans in a Texas rehab hospital is not sitting well with some liberal bloggers.
At this point, it's not known exactly which game Bush played. As reported by AFP:
President George W. Bush had a shoot-out with the "bad guys" in Iraq on Thursday, playing a computer game with war veterans that simulates a firefight in Baghdad... Bush tried his hand at the game with two soldiers during a visit to a rehabilitation center in Texas that treats veterans wounded in Iraq.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush helped "shoot the bad guys" in a Baghdad neighborhood, albeit virtually... the president saw several "cutting edge virtual reality games" that allow recovering soldiers at the center in San Antonio to simulate riding in a car or boat.
The Huffington Post's bare-bones report on the story generated a thousand comments (although, to be fair, many of those relate to a flame war among HP readers). Meanwhile Exit Stage-left really wigged out:
First, did he wear his flight suit? Just because you play a god blessed video game, you did not fight against the "bad guys" you twit.
It's an insult to the men and women you are sending in to lose limbs and their lives. You playing a video game does not make you a soldier, you giddy moron.
...For [military personnel killed in Iraq] there was no restart button, the bullets were real, you don't get any "life packs" or supercharged powers. You don't play in an air-conditioned room with tons of admirers/donors watching your every move.
GP: Let me say right up front that - my opinion - George W. Bush is a freakin' disaster as President. But c'mon. The troops - many of whom have lost limbs - were rehabbing and enjoying the game. What's the problem? Bush has plenty of real issues over which he can be criticized. Let's not manufacture one from a few moments of game play.
Comments
Re: President Bush Games with Wounded Troops; Bloggers Take
I can't believe that people are bitching about Bush playing a fucking game! He was just playing a game with some of our Troops who are American Heroes.
btw, I think I am the only person here who likes Bush...
Plus they're Communists! It's like i'm in Bliss..
Now his veto of that child's health care thing, that's something much more important to focus on, for example.
I wonder what JT would say? WWJTD?
Anyway, I hate Bush for startinga useless war (that might have turned out good, with a lot of care) and letting yes-men dictate the warring and then when they failed (Surprising isn't it?) not throwing them away ASAP. I also hate registered Bush Bashers, anyway they only preach to the choir, who can't see that he might have done a few nice things. Hell, I'd bet they would STFU if any equally incompetent democrat president made the same thing. Anyway Bush is where we lost hope of getting a sane republican party and, of course, at the same time the democratic party hasn't got to be sane to compete anymore. Damn the neo-cons (and the people who fell for their spin) for getting the US in a politically locked situation of total failure. (The alternative was called Al Gore, so perhaps the US voters didn't make the worse choise...)
And as for saying that 'he perhaps has better things to do" I'd like to remind people that a sleep deprived and stressed person is not some one you would like to see running a powerful nation, I repeat, a half crazzed psycho is not a good leader, out.
Besides, let him go without the PR for once, please, we nedd less spin in politics already, and not just the "I have less spin in my campaign!" reverse spin that still is spin, we need less spin. Lies, I can cope with, just don't try to persuade (=! convince) me they are true.
Bush playing video games with troops = unimportannt
Bush's policies and effect on the nation = VERY IMPORTANT.
Except, you know, Hans Blix and the weapons inspectors.
Gaming with injured troops, especially when he's ultimately responsible for putting them there, is never a bad thing. Games have been shown to speed recovery and help with pain managment.
Or
Who let the clown into the hospital!
LOL
>>
Sorry if there were no cams/pics I would give thumbs up to this but with the pics it smacks of a PR stunt more than visiting the wounded.
by the way, middle eastern FPS....COD4?
not really its like the mission accomplished spew its a freaking photo op.
Garret
its a photo opt and whats worse because bush and co put them there in the first place....uhg.... sorry there is nothing He and his can do that is not partially corrupted from the start.....
LIGHTEN UP, FRANCIS!
If the game session was indeed a military simulation, I bet I can figure out which one it was in 3 guesses. If it was just an entertainment game, then some differentiation needs to be made.
its hard to do so when this asshole and his friends have fcked over the country so much even more so than whats in the socialist dims wet dreams, there is no excuse to have this retard and his cronies still in office but alas goverment is broken and falling downhill.
Its only a matter of time before the neo cons and neo dims (lack of a better word to not offend the libertarians :P),hell calling them by thos names are not good enough these aristocrats are damning the nation and will destroying it in a generation or 2.
This does not mean that he is evil. It means that he has taken time out of his busy life to show these wounded soldiers that they have not been forgotten.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
This does not mean that he is evil. It means that he has taken time out of his busy life to show these wounded soldiers that they have not been forgotten. "
QFE Knight, well said.
p.s. - I wonder if the vets let POTUS win a round or two? :P
(Although I seem to recall in the Rolling Stone piece that the interviewer noticed a Bush magnet on the refrigerator in his home, indicating support and thus making him a hypocrite...again. Then again, what else is new?) :P
key word PR, not everythign needs to be a photo opt if he went without cameras I could not diss this but with the cameras its nothing more than a photo opt to look good....meh and mabye to boost troop morals......*wanders off to remove 100 foot tree from ass*
POTUS can't even leave the White House without a camera in tow or a heads up of where he is going.
The only time I can think of was when he surprised the troops in Iraq at Christmas by sneaking out of his ranch. Even then though a handful of reporters were given the scoop and flew with him.
I'm sure the troops at the hospital appreciated the opportunity to meet the Commander in Chief and be told personally thanks for all they have done.
So the fact that cameras were present completely negates any good will present?
I agree with Baron. The pres can hardly go to the bathroom with out a parade of reporters.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
@ Black Manta
With the amount of dumbed-down language in this article (virtual reality, 'shooting the bad guys,' simulations) JT just might try to subpeona Bush. AGAIN.
Does Bush EVER go out in public cameras? He's the president. No, of course he doesn't. I didn't vote for him and I don't support what he's done but I'm going with Baron and Zachery on this.
...Then again, I guess people love to fabricate news stories just to attack George W. Bush when there's so much other stuff he's done wrong...
the camera people can be removed from the area.... he can do private visits when he wants to...
but playing an Iraq sim? -with vets who had their legs blown off (in reality) in iraq??? -with the guy who personally sent thousands of 'us' to die and kill tens of thousands of 'them' (in reality), and who justified it with LIES????
...and this is to create a down-to-earth show of sympathy for the troops, that's the part that's weird
Just for the record I hate despise Bush as much as any Democrat and I am a registered Republican. But to get a kink in the pants over his playing a game with them? Anyone renting clues? Obviously those bloggers cannot afford to one of their own.
Long line at the DMV? Blame Bush.
Got stopped for speeding? Blame Bush.
Mismanaged local crisis? Blame Bush.
The funny thing is that he did do something nice here. I wonder if any of the people slamming G.W. would do the same...
he's not being 'nice' -he's trying to get congress to pass his vets spending bill +make a little bit of positive publicity so it looks like the congress doesn't care about the troops and he's their hero.
I suppose it depends on whether the abysmal conditions at the rehab centers have been fixed, or whether this was just a photo op to pretend they were.
Also, the Exit-Stage-Left link only leads to a Daily Telegraph article that contains none of the quotes in this article.
That said, if we looked up bush's gamertag, bet you that he hasn't unlocked enough achievments in Iraq to satisfy critics. Y'see, who needs the writer's guild for late night?
So tell me...
How many terminally ill American CITIZENS did he drop in at hospitals and such and play a few video games with (such as at the hospitals where GWG and Child's Play donated games)?
Or, how about the citizens recovering from natural disasters (and some not so natural disasters)?
Nice of him to give attention to the soldiers fighting wars overseas. But maybe every once and awhile he can give some attention to the CITIZENS of THIS country.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Those soldiers are for the most part citizens of this country too.
If Preznit Bush thinks that's what Iraq was like, then the bloggers are justified. I wouldn't be suprised if that was going through his mind at the time. Of course, if he had said that, then the vets would have thrown him out the front door.
The other possiblity is that he was just there to enjoy himself and spend some time with his loyal soldiers, in which case the bloggers aren't justified, but are interpreting the situation as they see it.
The third possibility is that he was just doing it for the press.
Although Bush is a politican, he is a simple man (also known as an idiot), so it's more likely to be the first scenario than the other two.