What the fuck???? Can't everyone see what's wrong with this picture?

[MADem]

48. The real reason is pretty ugly, actually.

When those Republican geniuses were planning for the Bush Wars, they were looking at the data from the last big dust-ups, the Gulf War (which was a turkey shoot, more or less) and Vietnam. If you look at the casualty figures from Vietnam, you see 58K names on a long black wall in the shape of a V. If, back then, we had the type of body armor, helmets, and protective personnel transport that we have now, probably half those names--maybe more--would NOT be on that wall.

Here's the truth--and like I said, it's ugly....it's cheaper to bury a servicemember, pay out the SGLI and associated death payments (grave, headstone, etc) than keep 'em alive, kicking, with replacement prostheses and a medically retired designation and paycheck, with cost of living increases every year. When the Pentagon gripes about "personnel costs" those sorts of expenditures (along with pipeline training and family support) are the biggies that take the largest bite.

I do remember that they ordered a HUGE number of body bags at the start of that business--I think they've got lots left over, maybe they sold/transferred them to local coroners for a good price...

I honestly don't think the Bush Bunch necessarily counted on that much shooting, at the outset anyway, first, and second, when the shooting (and blowing up) started, they didn't expect that many to come home alive. The fact that they did survive injuries that would have been killers just a few decades ago put huge stressors on the VA, which resulted in the famous VA scandal that took so many people out of the picture. You think the GOP controlled House (where all appropriations begin) were about to appropriate money to build more VA hospitals, to increase staff and services? Hell to the no--it was "Make it do--or do without."

Military emergency medicine did a first rate job during those Bush Wars--they kept people alive who would have died thirty or forty years ago.