Posted on 08/15/2004 3:27:43 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
WASHINGTON - Sgt. Peter Damon, who lost his right arm and left hand in Iraq, never set out to be a bit player in presidential politics and is furious at Michael Moore for making him one in "Fahrenheit 9/11."
"It ticked me off," Damon said of the 10-second clip in the Bush-bashing documentary that shows him being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
"I just feel it was wrong and I was violated in some way, seeing myself up there on the screen," said Damon, 31, of Brockton, Mass.
"I think [Moore] should be ashamed of himself," added Damon, who was severely injured in October in Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, when a tire on a Black Hawk helicopter exploded as he was changing it. The blast killed Pfc. Paul Bueche, 19, of Daphne, Ala.
Damon said he has no regrets about his service with the Army National Guard or doubts about the U.S. mission in Iraq and resents his unwanted link with a film offering a contrary view.
"I'd like to go to the Republican National Convention and speak out about it," Damon said. "I agree with the President 100%. A lot of the guys down at Walter Reed feel the same way."
Moore's camp denied any intention to demean the service of U.S. troops through the film, which has become fodder for both sides in the race between President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry.
Joanne Doroshow, associate producer of "Fahrenheit," said, "Anybody who has seen the film knows we have nothing but the deepest respect for the soldiers who were wounded. One of the purposes of the movie was to examine the impossible situation they were put into and to raise questions about why they were sent there."
The brief video clip of Damon used by Moore was licensed from an NBC News segment that focused on the treatment of amputees at Walter Reed using a new regimen to block the excruciating "phantom pain" of limb loss, in which the patient still feels the pain of the missing limb.
Lt. Col. Chester Buckenmaier, the anesthesiologist who treated Damon at the 21st Combat Support Hospital in Iraq and later at Walter Reed, said he also was angered at the Moore film after he took Damon to see it in Bethesda, Md.
"I was appalled. This was Joseph Goebbels-type propaganda," Buckenmaier said, referring to the Nazi propaganda chief.
Moore took "a very positive thing we're doing for soldiers" who lost limbs and "used it to tell a lie," Buckenmaier said.
Lila Lipscomb, whose own appearances in the documentary are the emotional apex of "Fahrenheit 9/11," said she sympathized with Damon's distress, but disagreed with him on Moore's motives.
"Personally, I think it brings tremendous awareness to the world on what our soldiers have gone through," said Lipscomb, 50, of Flint, Mich., who lost her son, Sgt. Michael Pedersen, a 26-year-old Black Hawk crew chief, in Iraq.
"I don't see it as demeaning in any way," she added.
Her son was a seasoned soldier, Lipscomb said, who "knew what was going on and did not understand why we had to go." Her son told her before he left for Iraq, "'There's no reason for us to go over there,' but he knew his responsibilities and what he had to do," she said.
Both Damon and Buckenmaier said they were most incensed at what they felt was the depiction of soldiers as naive, underclass "children" forced to pay in blood for the geostrategic whims of callous politicians.
"The whole movie makes soldiers look like a bunch of idiots," Damon said. "I'm not a child. We sent ourselves over there" as volunteers for a cause, he said. "It was all our own doing. I don't appreciate him calling us children."
You are a genuine American patriot, and this country owes you more than it can ever fully repay.
You, sir, are my hero.
If the RNC were run by anyone other than incomptents, this guy would be at the convention.
Michael Moore is the worst type of enemy aiding crapsack out there.
whoa. That doesn't exactly sound like the most dangerous job in Iraq either.
From your computer to God's ear, to President Bush's directive.
Thank you Sgt. Damon for your service to our country. Thank you to all who serve.
MM is a smug, arrogant, condescending moron.
Maybe someone should send the idea to the campaign team??
Impossible situation = Whole country liberated from and evil atrocities to civilized democratic form of government in 18 months.
??????
Even the leftists admit Moore's motives are pure anti-Bush hatred, is this woman totally clueless??
How can we help make this happen? Any Ideas. Come on Freepers. We are inventive. We have contacts. Lets make this happen.
IIRC this woman (Lila Lipscomb) sat through 5 or 6 showings a week the first month it came out. (I'm probably wrong on the numbers) But she's one sick puppy. She went to watch herself cry on screen about losing her son, over and over and over and over.
How many times does she play the VHS tape at home? (I'm sure MM gave her one)
And we need to read her opinion? The presstitutes are out of control and MM should buy himself a robe so his followers can worship him properly.
<|:-)~~
Seriously!
None so blind as those who refuse to see
"And ye, they constantly intoned: "MI-key" over and over again..."
And don't forget to kiss the ring before you address him.
Definition of a Hero: Loses two good limbs, gets up and starts kicking Michael Moore's butt with the two good ones he has left.
That's a lot of ground to cover, Godspeed and God bless, sir...
Definition of a hero...
Anyone who kicks his butt from one end of the Long Island to the other...
And whoever puts him on a one way flight to Afghanistan will be worshiped as a hero of heroes.
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