The Forgotten Soldiers of Operation "Iraqi Freedom"

Maurice, Victor, Steve, and Rob are just a few of the thousands of GI's returning from Iraq -- often with one or more limbs amputated, flown in with little notice under the cover of night and brought to Walter Reed military Hospital in Washington, D.C. Here, they're operated on, treated, fitted with prosthetics when possible, generally medicated, and given psychological and physical therapy. For the record, Walter Reed is the hospital where wounded soldiers returning from Vietnam went. No fanfare for these heroes. On top of the injuries they've had to endure to their bodies and hearts, they come home to be ignored by mainstream American media. Only an English TV station, Channel 4, considered it newsworthy to go to the hospital to interview the injured soldiers. Of course, all interviewees must be selected and briefed by army leadership in advance of any conversations with journalists. Curiously, the casualty statistics released by the Pentagon contradict those of the U.S Army. While the Pentagon contends that 2722 soldiers have been wounded in action and 417 in non hostile fire as of March 1, the U.S. Air Force confides that it has flown approximately 12,000 wounded soldiers into Andrews Air Force Base over the past 9 months. With the severity of injuries sustained, it seems like the Pentagon's reduced estimates are meant to camouflage a scandal that could cost George Bush his re-election.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=317&row=0

using hand controls on their handicapped-equipped cars.

Let's see if the reviewing stand (where they get to shake hands with the pRez) is ADA compliant.

would be joining the Kerry campaign come this summer...I'm talking about those who would be discharged, of course, because those still in would not be allowed. I would love it as Bush poses in front of the applauding troops lined up for the photo ops, if Kerry is surrounded by recently discharged troops and particularly the horribly wounded. Those guys wouldn't be backdrops ordered into place; they would be real. And they would be a sight that Bush doesn't want out there. Perhaps they could start listing the numbers who are wounded---the public will listen to them. Please, Kerry, get your people on recruiting these former Iraq War soldiers.

(along with the fact that forcing them to stay in keeps their fighting numbers up.)

and he just wrote us that some guys detonated a roadside bomb near him (hes stationed at Abu Gharib prison). Now this makes me crazy with more worry.

shit

December 3, 2003. Abu Gharib prison. Rob's Humvee, accompanied by two other vehicles, is suddenly caught in an ambush. His jeep is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. "It took the quick-reaction forces 20 minutes to get me, and here I'm bleeding, the flesh of my left leg is blown off and my right leg is gone… GONE!" He says this while repeatedly folding and unfolding the empty leg of his blue-jeans. Somehow, you know he's leaving out the worst. The interviewees only hint at it, saying the madness, destruction, blood, and burnt flesh can make the strongest man lose his mind. In their silence, the soldiers mute themselves much like the mainstream media, downplaying the bloodbath on the battlefield to keep up the unflinching image of an individual (or nation) at war.

I'm sorry I haven't talked to you before this. My friend has lost her son and another friend's boys are there right now. It's just to hard for me to write about but I had to say I pray for you and your family every day when I pray for them. There's a connection here because we have a family farm in South Haven.

we want to know we need to know

I don't know where the other is yet.

and they are receiving in 50-100 soldiers a day. Many are suffering from a skin disorder that they get from bug bites, it requires a month of IV antibiotic treatment.

http://www.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/leishmaniasis.htm

The rest are suffering from wounds or they are having problems with previous conditions like diabetes, blood pressure problems...etc

She said that there are people over there that have no business being in the military anymore due to age.(one guy was 70..no joke)..but that they need all the bodies they can get to fill slots.

She said that the really badly wounded go to hospitals nearby and that she only took care of those who were not seriously injured.