Soldier

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.

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.

I give it roughly half a day before the Republicans start savaging this wounded soldier in the name of "supporting the troops."

Isn't it interesting that when talking to a soldier whose legs were blown off in a war that HE chose to start, Bush doesn't mention the war, itself.

I guess he's afraid of what he might hear.