Stuart physician slams Obama for nixing troop visit

By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Treasure Coast surgeon and Republican activist who oversaw the care of wounded U.S. troops in Germany says presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama showed "bad judgment" in canceling a visit to a military hospital there during his recent world travels.

Dr. Slobodan "Danny" Jazarevic, who left West Palm Beach in 2002 to be chief of trauma and vascular surgery and critical care at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, said Tuesday that wounded troops always appreciate visits from U.S. officials and celebrities.

Jazarevic, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, lives in Stuart and is running in a GOP primary for a Treasure Coast state House seat. Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign asked him to speak to reporters about the Landstuhl controversy.

The McCain campaign has slammed Obama for canceling the visit to Landstuhl. It released an ad this week that says Obama "made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras."

Obama's campaign said it never planned to bring reporters or cameras along, and pointed out that he did not invite the media earlier in the trip when he visited wounded soldiers in Iraq.

Obama told reporters in London on Saturday that the Landstuhl visit was called off because of "concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political, and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not and get caught in the crossfire between the campaigns."

Jazarevic said an Obama visit to Landstuhl might indeed have been perceived as political. But he said Obama should have gone anyway because it would have boosted the morale of injured troops.

"We had congressmen, senators, movie stars, everybody visit Landstuhl. All those troops, they were grateful for someone to come," Jazarevic said.

"It was a bad decision on somebody's part to tell (Obama) not to go. It was bad judgment," he added.

Asked if Obama would have been criticized if he had visited the troops, Jazarevic said: "I'm sure he would be. But I think the honor of visiting those troops trumps everything else. They're honored and he should be honored by visiting."

Jazarevic, 51, is trauma director at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center and Heart Institute in Fort Pierce. He is one of three Republicans running in an Aug. 26 primary for the seat of term-limited state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Port St. Lucie.