Hemophiliacs to Republicans: Stop Saying "Cut and Run"

Ann Arbor, MI February 12, 2006 -- For the last few months Republicans have been ridiculing the criticism coming from Democrats and the majority of the American people by saying the Democrats want to “cut and run” from Iraq. The Republican labeling has now reached a fever pitch even though the Bush Adminstration has not yet made public a plan for exiting Iraq.

During this period wherein Democrats have been deftly dodging the attacks from the Republicans, another group has risen to confront the aggressive tactics of the Republicans – America’s hemophiliacs.

One of those hemophiliacs, Mr. Harold von Willebrand of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has had enough and is fighting back.

Mr. von Willebrand explained: “‘Cut and run,’ now what’s that all about? Well, I’ll tell you what that’s all about. That’s about the Republicans not having any idea about how to clean up the mess they’ve made in Iraq, so they falsely accuse the Democrats of wanting something they don’t by poking fun at my inherited bleeding disorder.”

Hemophilia is a bleeding disorder in which a specific clotting factor protein is either missing or does not function as it should.

It is unclear why the Republicans have begun to target the nearly 20,000 diagnosed hemophiliacs who live in the United States today. One thing that is clear, however, is that the Republican leadership has determined that the use of a label like ‘cut and run’ shows weakness and deemed to be insulting.

Mr. von Willebrand disagrees and suggests that ‘cut and run’ is an issue that he and many like him have had to face on a daily basis and that one must be strong in order to face the ‘cutting and running’ reality of his very own lifeblood. That is the primary reason that Mr. von Willebrand started the political awareness group Republicans Uttering Stupidity against Hemophiliacs (RUSH) to counter the building pressure from Republicans.

“In November of 2005, my life began to change,” Mr. von Willebrand explained. “I began being confronted on a near daily basis with ‘cut and run’ comments from Republicans that made my blood boil.”

According to RUSH records, on November 15, 2005 Senate Republicans began using the term ‘cut and run’ in a derogatory sense. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) labeled an original Democratic proposal on a staggered U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as being "cut and run" while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said of the Democrats, "they want an exit strategy, a cut-and-run exit strategy.”

On November 17, 2005 House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) said, “America will not abandon Iraq. We must not cut and run.”

On November 19, 2005 the White House Press Secretary released a statement that said: “For the second time this week, Congress, in strong, bipartisan fashion, rejected the call to cut and run.”

President Bush got into the act during one of his many ‘Plan for Victory’ speeches when, on November 30, 2005 at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, he said: “Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies -- that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends.”

The months of December and January saw many more Bush administration officials like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld join in the act of defaming hemophiliacs with their insensitive ‘cut and run’ comments.

Contrary to popular belief, people with hemophilia do not bleed faster than other people and will not bleed to death from a minor cut or injury. This being said, it has become popular for Republicans to taunt anybody who disagrees with them as a coward, quitter, cut-and-runner, loser, or hemophiliac. This does not sit well with Mr. von Willebrand.

“Just because people want to know if the Republicans have a plan to safely bring our U.S. soldiers home from Iraq, they get attacked. It’s the Republicans’ fault that they didn’t have a plan to begin with, not the fault of Democrats and most certainly not the fault of hemophiliacs,” asserted Mr. von Willebrand.

He related a recent example of how his life now has the added pressure of being labeled unpatriotic on top of coping with his illness: “Just last week I was out for a walk and needed to sit down for a rest when a elderly lady who was sitting there prior to my arrival began talking to me. After a couple of minutes we began talking about our health and I mentioned the chronic pain I was suffering in my joints from my hemophilia. All at once she turned into a different person and said, ‘I suppose you’re one of those afraid little cut-and-runners that want those poor American boys who have died in Iraq to have died in vain. You all make me sick.’ And with that, she stood up and walked away.”

“I was astonished,” Mr. von Willebrand said. “I wish I would have had the wherewithal to tell her, ‘Listen, bitch! One must be strong to survive with hemophilia. Additionally, those 2,300 U.S. soldiers have died from the lies that Bush and his cabal have told. What’s vain is to keep sending soldiers to their death to support this and it’s vain to attack Democrats because they want to know what the plan for Iraq really is and it’s vain to attack hemophiliacs because we commonly suffer from arthritis in our joints.’ That’s what I should have said.”

When contacted for comments on this article, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee declined comment, only chuckling that “his heart bleeds for hemophiliacs.”

By Raoul Thibodeaux, Avant News Staff Writer