Military Hospital Sees Iraq Carnage Daily

[saigon68]

Staff Frustrated That Nation Doesn't Know Enough Of War's Toll

http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=A63821A9-F442-4BFE-8AEE-5D2BCC3D61C5

By MATTHEW MCALLESTER
Published on 9/28/2004

Landstuhl, Germany — The medical team that accompanied the soldier on the Thursday morning flight from Iraq had worked the whole way to keep him alive, his body burned and lacerated by the fire and metal of a roadside bomb.

They were low on oxygen by the time the green military ambulance reached the front door of the hospital


Full green oxygen tank in place, its contents filtering into the unconscious man's lungs, the team lowered the soldier on his stretcher to the ground. His scorched face was a painter's palette of the colors of pain: yellow, mauve, bright red. In the intensive care unit, nurses quickly worked to make sure his wounds were as clean as possible. An infection could kill him. A couple of rooms over, more nurses worked on another young soldier, also unconscious, burned and sparring with death. Another roadside bomb victim. Dabbing gently, they spread thick white antimicrobial cream on the raw flesh of his forearms. Twenty percent of his body was burned.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 18,000 military personnel have passed through the hospital from what staff refer to as “down range”: Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those, nearly 16,000 have come from Iraq

[leftchick]

1. it is worth it cuz saddam is gone.....

and he was such a bad man, and it is for our freedoms, remember 9/11 it changed everything,and we are safer......

It is sickening and such a waste! Thank you for posting it saigon...

:(

[leftchick]

2. dupe

oop!

[saigon68]

3. Over 18,000 in this hospital alone

The figures for wounded-- combat related injuries don't add up to the official totals. I guess Wounded means you have a purple heart. But if you get your arm torn off in a traffic accident--- Its no big deal!!!


Disgusting.

[leftchick]

4. that is much higher than previously reported...

isn't it? Bad news for aWol*...

[jmcgowanjm]

16. UPI-17K not reported + 7200 acknowledged by Pentagon

10/1 KIA/WIA ratio.

20% of injuries serious brain damage.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000630846

[Gin]

5. too bad all of their careers would be ruined if they tell the truth...

I hope the 70 year old Doctor comes back and speaks out before the election....but he won't.

I understand how difficult that would be for him....but I wish it would happen.

The soldiers in the hospitals with one leg or worse who say they are anxious to get back to their unit...are speaking from a lot of different emotions....and those comments are the ones shrub chooses to repeat.

[Jivenwail]

6. I can't stop crying

This is something that everyone in this country should be forced to read - this is what the majority of people supporting this damned war don't see, don't want to see, but should be forced to see - every single day. The ruined lives - lives they can never get back.
If this doesn't speak to the absolute necessity of getting this despicable administration out of office, I don't know what else we can do.

Thank you so much for posting this - I will be emailing this to everyone I know and asking them to forward it on.

May God rest the souls of those who have died and may their families find peace - somehow, someway.

[0007]

7. This soldiers wife is catching on to junior

"Cheryl Daniels is looking at a tough future. She has to parent her kids, hold down a job at Fort Hood Army base in Texas, where the family lives, and finish the management degree she is studying for at night. Soon her disabled husband will be home, and she finds it hard to believe, as the doctors have told her, that “in a year or two he's going to be back to normal. I can't see that right now because he's got nerve damage in his arms.”

She doesn't feel that her country, her military, is giving her enough support. She had to pay her own way to Germany and her own way back. The Army was doing almost nothing for her, she said."

[leftchick]

10. she should contact her congress person about this.....

oops she is in Texas, she will have no help if the congress person is repuke! :(

[0007]

11. ....and they all are. No help there!

[teryang]

8. "George Bush is an idiot."

<A month ago, Hecker took four days off to fly home to see his family. He needed a break. They went out for dinner at a nice restaurant. Hecker realized during dinner that he was suddenly seeing the world differently. He looked around at the chattering people, eating their fine food, drinking good wine and he thought to himself: “They have no idea what's going on here. Absolutely none.”<snip>

<Maybe it was the stress, maybe it's because Hecker has no military career to mess up by speaking out of line, but it just came out: “George Bush is an idiot,” he said, quickly saying he regretted the comment.>

[jmcgowanjm]

15. The pilot who flew Bush to the "Mission Accomplished"

publicity stunt on the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003 died
in a training exercise in the Western Pacific,
apparently unconnected to the Iraq war on August 10. Bush
did not attend Lt. Commander Scott Zellem's funeral. Bush
has never attended any kind of a military funeral service
or memorial – although there have been over a thousand
of them, and ultimately, he is personally responsible for
each and every one. This is an outstanding example
of “Compassionate Conservatism” in
action.

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1115.htm

[JoFerret]

25. He may well be phobic

(as well as narcississtic and indifferent to the suffering of others).

[rfkrocks]

9. where are the swift boat vets for truth-guess they are AWOL here

Nowhere because they don't give a damn about our troops-where is the outrage that the wife of a combat hero has to spend her own money to see her wounded husband-what an absolute disgrace- these unfeeling neocon bastards don't even know how many dead there were in Iraq-this article does make us weep for the death and pain before us but I am physically sickened by an establishment that has caused such misery all for a Freudian revenge kick by the King of America:argh:

[Disturbed]

12. Thousands more...

will suffer. Film should be on every Network about this but won't be.
The US Media is complicit in the carnage of Iraq.

The maiming won't be on TV. How high does the death toll need to go before a majority of Americans start shouting enough? My guess: Around 10,000.

[saigon68]

13. I think a Draft and 30,000 KIA before its over.

Many will have to die in the streets of Amerika too, ala Kent state, if these Corporate Bootlicks manage to seize the presidency again.

Notice how I left out "win the Election"

[jmcgowanjm]

20. SS boards notified that 20-year-olds and

medical personnel will be called up first.

At the head of the busy-work list – a no-nonsense
commitment to report to the president by March 31st, 2005
that the system is ready to roll full steam within 75 days,
which would clear the decks for a first lottery by June 15th,
2005.

Guard Unit  Forced to Deploy from Lockup Directly to War Zone
by Thomas E. Ricks
The Washington Post
Septembner 21, 2004
FORT DIX, N.J. — The 635 soldiers of a battalion of the
South Carolina National Guard scheduled to depart Sunday for
a year or more in Iraq have spent their off-duty hours under
a disciplinary lockdown in their barracks for the past two
weeks.

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1115.htm

[seemslikeadream]

14. Torok died from a self-inflicted puncture wound to the chest.

Torok died from a self-inflicted puncture wound to the chest.

He had left his parents' home in Kingston that day at 11:30 a.m. to visit a friend in Shabbona. Torok had just returned home from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after serving in Afghanistan last year.

[w4rma]

18. Self-inflicted? He stabbed himself in the heart with a knife? (nt)

[w4rma]

17. !@#$ing TRAITORS running our mainstream media refuse to show this. (nt)

[saigon68]

21. It would upset the SHEEP

Oh well--- At least some of us here care

[JoFerret]

19. "George Bush is an idiot"

This is a dupe - it was already postied from its appearance in New York Newsday but it is worth a second posting.
Here is some more from the article:

<<A month ago, Hecker took four days off to fly home to see his family.... He looked around at the chattering people....and he thought to himself: “They have no idea what's going on here. Absolutely none.”

He doesn't think people want to see it. He thinks the nation is still scarred by Vietnam and would prefer not to see the thousands of injured young men coming home from Iraq.

....

Maybe it was the stress.... but it just came out: “George Bush is an idiot,” he said,.... But then he continued, criticizing Bush as a rich kid who hasn't seen enough of the world. “He's very rich, you'd think he'd get some education,” Hecker said.

“He's my president. I'll follow him in what he wants to do,” he continued, “but I'm here for him.” Hecker leaned forward and pointed through the glass at the unconscious soldier fighting for his life 2 yards away.>>

[leftchick]

22. Too bad the AmeriKans won't see this on their tvs....

sobering statistics here....

<snip>

Each day, an average of 30 to 35 patients arrive on flights from Iraq. The most on a single day was 168.

More than 200 personnel have come in with either lost eyes or eye injuries that could result in sight loss or blindness.

About 160 soldiers have had limbs amputated, most of them passing through the hospital on their way home to more surgery.

And it's not just their bodies that come in needing fixing. More than 1,400 physically fit personnel have been admitted with mental-health problems.

Then there are the Pentagon's figures that touch on all casualties from the war in Iraq: 1,042 dead; 7,413 injured in action, including 4,026 whose injuries have prevented them from returning to duty. In Afghanistan, there have been 366 injuries and 138 deaths.

[saigon68]

23. The numbers suck

They can't spin the KIA's because Dead is Dead.


but who in God's name could ever begin to count the disabled, wounded or whatever.

[seemslikeadream]

24. Is It Time for War Zealots to Send Their Kids to Iraq?

......


Given the fact that the U.S. is already conducting a backdoor draft and soldiers are reportedly being threatened if they do not reenlist and the U.S. may be running out of Reserve and National Guard troops for the war on terror, "staying the course" looks increasingly risky. (John Edwards recently promised that "There will be no draft when John Kerry is president," and was greeted with a standing ovation. )

Then, too, according to a plan obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, before the start of the war in Iraq, Selective Service System Director Lewis Brodsky proposed upping the maximum draft age from 25 to 34 and requiring women to register, highlighting, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer explained, "the extent to which agency officials have planned for an expanded military draft. .".

Far too many Americans still believe that questioning the war in Iraq dishonors our 3,000 dead, despite the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with that tragic day. In their fear, they wonder if terrorists might hit them personally and would gladly give up the rights afforded under the U.S. Constitution. And, since their need for security trumps ideals of liberty, it’s safer and easier to believe that G.W. Bush will protect them.

And although so-called "security moms" seem to believe that terrorists will invade little Johnny’s elementary school, thanks to the war in Iraq, Johnny now stands a higher chance of being drafted than he does of being singled out by "Islamofascists" in Iowa.

But those of us who fought against this war do not believe it has anything to do with protecting America. In fact, not only does this preventative war counter the principles under which America was founded, but -- just as truth-tellers warned -- it has made us less safe.

Yes, there are two Americas and the one that does not want "four more years" wants you to understand: Follow you heart. Follow your principles. But do not expect the rest of us to fall in line.

And, most of all, to those of you who not only applaud the war in Iraq, but hope to widen it into Iran: Do everything in your power to talk your own children into joining the military so those who disagree with this mess won't be drafted.

[saigon68]

27. so-called "security moms"

Yes they are pathetic creatures.

They think some Arab man is going to do a suicide bombing at the annual Des Moines Lions Club Bean Feed.

LOL

[saigon68]

28. so-called "security moms"

Yes they are pathetic creatures.

They think some Arab man is going to do a suicide bombing at the annual Des Moines Lions Club Bean Feed.

LOL

[xxqqqzme]

26. A family I know

has a Dr. son @ this hospital. They visited in April. The Drs there were telling them the wounded numbers are under reported. The Drs said it was closer 2 30,000 and that was in April!