Iraq War Amputees Get New Life and Limbs at Walter Reed

...but how many stories are there like this account? Our media are falling down on the job by not bringing home to the American people the costs, the tragedies, the suffering and the strengths of endurance and courage revealed in stories like these. Thanks for the link. We do not see enough of this in the media.:thumbsup:

Don't think any of the morning shows have ever had these amputees on. But, rejects from "Survivor" and "American Idol" get plenty of air time. Thanks a lot, media - you bastards.

Bush should be made to go to Walter Reed Hospital and talk to every one of these men and explain just why they gave their limbs for this country. He won't because he couldn't look them in the eye.

Edited to add...I don't know how Bush can sleep at night except that he is to dumb to realize he's responsible. Maybe he thinks God told him to do it...so it's God's fault. Nothing for him to worry his little concience about.

He doesn't need to rationalize that it's "God's fault." He doesn't give a shit, and never did. So long as he and his orcs hold power, that's what counts. Privately, I think he laughs at the stupidity of Americans who will do his bidding, while his own daughters are safely ensconced on the French Riviera, shopping at Harrod's or nightclubbing.

The stunned acceptance that a young man or woman feels when they are first injured is act one..

You see, no one ever goes into combat expecting to be "the one" who "gets it".. In their minds , there is a little movie playing , where THEY are the one who races to the aid of a wounded comrade, scoops them up , and carries them to safety..flash forward to the medal ceremony, their Mom & Dad, beaming with pride.. That's the mental image that young , and not so young soldiers carry into battle.. In their "movie" , they are NEVER the one writhing in agony in the mud, as they reach for the source of the pain, only to find that their limb is just not there anymore..

The immediate aftermath is critical to survival, and modern techniques have saved many lives, that in the past would have been lost. The injuries are so devastating, that it takes months of rehab to even recover enough to leave the hospital. While in the hospital, the soldiers are catered to and cared for well. They are often depressed and lonely for their families, and are eager to return home..

A permanently maimed soldier is of no use to the active military, so they are released from the military and into the open arms of their families. The happy ending should start with that release, but it's just the second act. Now they have no more solicitous nurses, no attentive doctors, no V.I.P. visitors to bolster their spirits.. Lots of these young people were poor when they went into the military, and they are now poor AND handicapped, and OUT of the service.

If he/she happens to live a great distance from the nearest VA facility, the hassles are just starting too.. It's hard to re-start their lives, when they are caught up in an endless saga of long drives, long waits, and piles of paperwork.. The thing that they don't tell the soldiers , is that services are often denied at first, as a test to see how determined they are to actually make the military provide those services.. For a healthy person this is a daunting task, but if you are seriously injured, depressed, and lacking reliable transportation, it's just that much more difficult..

The medical disability pay is a bit of comfort, but it does not EVER make up for the fact that where there was once a young basketball player, or a young mother, there is now an amputee, who is probably going to have a much harder time finding meaningful work, IF they can EVER return to work.. Artificial limbs are state-of-the-art these days, but they are very expensive, and take some getting used to.

Once the "rah-rah" fever subsides, and life goes back to normal, there is the reality, that evryone else may be able to find that "normal", but for the injured soldier, there will never be "normal". There will only be "a bit better", "not quite as depressed","having a bad/good day" , or "doing as well as can be expected". For the family members, there is a constant reminder that they almost lost that person, so the temptation is there , to always go easy on them. For young wives who may have not had much "pre-injury" time, there is the frustration of not getting what they bargained for, and the guilt for even thinking it. For the parents, it's got to bother them, that they did not have more money, so they could have sent him/her to college, instead of the military..

War wounds last forever..and they affect more than the injured

he played a bitter paraplegic in a veteran's hospital in exactly the same circumstances you described. He had a fiancee who wanted to care for him, but he was rejecting her, not wanting to put her through his agony. There are thousands of these stories in the making, thanks to the imbecile usurper in the Oval Office.

A new life???? Christ.... That just pisses me off how they make it sound like something special. Now give him his old life back, and his old limbs .. I really have to admire these soldiers. Things like this fill me with so much anger. How do they deal with the anger?

have to stop the glamour and the propaganda that the recruiters offer to young and impressionable people still in their teens.

There is NO glamour in today's military . For the US it is only being used to invade other countries for selfish purposes, not for defense at all. It is being used by evil men like the cowardly George AWOL Bush CIC and his five deferrment vice lying president, millionaire many times over, Dick heartless Cheney.

Never let your precious children be swayed in today's world, by thinking they are "defending" their country by joining the military and fight every bit of recruitment techniques that would take our precious children away to coveted lands, and have them lose their lives there simply because a fascist leader uses them for his own purposes.

Teach them to think and teach them to do the same thing the rich little frat bastards do and get a deferrment for college or some other thing. No need for our precious children to be pawns when they can do the same thing as the rich who end up being thier CIC, while AWOL themself in time of war.

Maybe I have gone nuts, but I cannot help but think that if George the cowardly liar Bush reads these accounts of all these amputees that he actually gets a charge out of it-like he gets a charge out of the dead bodies coming out of the WTC that he now uses for his campaign--makes him look, in his eyes as a brave
leader and these unfortunates are proof postive of his great leadership-he was the "war president" when all this happened. I believe that he does and I believe that he thinks it adds to his image as the leader--you know,he thinks he is like Lincoln in the Civil War--there were also a lot of amputees in that war.