By The Associated Press | October 27, 2006

Dexter Kamilewicz of Orrs Island paints a bleak picture of the war in Iraq as he campaigns as an independent for Congress in Maine’s 1st District: “Our equipment is broken and our soldiers are busted,” he said.

His views are based on personal experience. His son joined the Vermont National Guard to be part of the biathlon team and to have a shot at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Instead, his son found himself in Iraq while the winter games were held in Turin, Italy.

Sgt. Ben Kamilewicz survived 11 months in Iraq that included conducting door-to-door searches and escorting convoys. One of his most harrowing events was on a convoy to secure the site of a Marine helicopter crash.

A roadside bomb destroyed the Humvee in front of Kamilewicz’s Humvee, which swerved and crashed into a tank. “Despite suffering a concussion, he had to pick up the body parts of a lieutenant who was killed,” Dexter Kamilewicz said.

While Kamilewicz keeps focused on the war, he insists he’s not a one-issue candidate. He said that the defense budget makes up half of the $1 trillion federal budget that’s left after obligations including Social Security.

“When you count that kind of money, there’s no room for health care. There’s no room for anything else,” he said.

He’d like to use that money to create something on the scale of NASA’s Apollo project focusing on reinvigorating public transportation and developing alternative fuels both to create jobs and to alleviate American dependence on foreign oil.

As for health care, he’d like to see a single-payer universal system. He said countries with single-payer systems have lower health-care costs.

The decision to run didn’t come lightly, Kamilewicz said.

“I’ve been shaken to my soul. This is not some kind of business decision. This is life…,” he said. “We need guts and I’ve got that.”