Military Families Call on Congress to Pull Troops Out of Iraq

[kskiska]

Claiming their loved ones were deceived by the Bush administration, the family members of troops serving in Iraq urged Congress on Tuesday to bring home the troops and vote down additional spending for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq.

Representatives of Military Families Speak Out, an organization that claims to represent 800 to 1,000 military families opposed to the war, said at a meeting on Capitol Hill that the morale of U.S. troops in Iraq is deteriorating as the number of fatalities and combat-related injuries continues to rise.

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) reported he had just returned from a visit to the amputee and psychiatry wards of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he talked to troops who had lost limbs or suffered other injuries in Iraq.

"It's getting to be like Vietnam," said McDermott, who practiced psychiatry during the Vietnam era.

McDermott told CNSNews.com he talked to a soldier who lost an eye and a leg when a guerilla dropped a bomb on a group of soldiers guarding a children's hospital in Iraq in July. The attack killed three other U.S. soldiers.

more…
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPentagon.asp?Page=\Pentagon\archive\200309\PEN20030910a.html

[tom_paine]

1. The Emperor* says, "Who Cares What you Think?"

Stupid cannon fodder.

Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP!

</sarcasm off>

:puke: :puke: :puke:

The Busheviks care about the troops like Tyson caresd about chickens.

[disgruntella]

2. Go, MSFO!

And good for McDermott.

[AnnabelLee]

3. Good for those families

But this absolutely breaks my heart, to see the words "amputee and psychiatry wards". The soldiers on those wards will suffer for the rest of their lives, & their families along with them. My local paper recently ran an article with the headline (paraphrasing from memory) "Despite losing legs in Iraq, local soldier remains full of spirit". It had a thumbnail pic of him smiling. I said to my husband, they should have entitled the article, "He doesn't care if he lost his legs, so quit whining about the casualties!":grr:

[LibDemAlways]

5. Poor guy.

I saw another one on CNN who is now blind, partially deaf and minus a leg thanks to the BFEE.
He needed desperately to believe that his sacrifice was worthwhile. Imagine going through that kind of hell and then waking up to the realization that you were maimed so that Halliburton could reap enormous profits and the US could steal Iraqi oil? Those psych wards are going to be busy places.

[qb]

4. Traitors!!! Gitmo for the lot of them.

on edit - that was my AssKKKroft impersonation.

[cmd]

6. My WWII uncle never left his property after coming home

Something happened to Uncle Charlie in Europe. He never talked about it. He just withdrew from the world. I never saw him take a step off his parents property. He didn't work, he didn't play. He didn't really live. He just existed for forty years after the war. McDermott knows what happens to PTS victims. I wish everyone for war had to visit a VA hospital to see the results.

[Karenina]

7. WWII could be argued as a "just" war

However, THIS one is NOT. Americans are being killed and maimed (at a rate that is classified information) in an arrogant military action that is NOT in ANYONE'S interests, including the profiteers who think so, and Iraqis are being brutalized WHOLESALE.

Your Uncle Charlie saw more and experienced more than he was able or willing to discuss. Could it be that he was SANE and could not even comprehend or cope with the insanity going on around him? :shrug:

I light a candle for him now, Coalminersdaughter. I hope you don't mind.

[Ouabache]

9. And don't forget the caretakers of the maimed and wounded

PTS can effect those medics and other caretakers who see and care for the constant stream of wounded, maimed, and debilitated casualties that flow out of a war zone.

Whether it is air transport personnel, hospital ship personnel, or end-point hospitalization staff--- they too can suffer great trauma from the constant stream.

Uncle Charlie could well have been a medic on a hospital ship in WWII, maybe even a conscientious objector who signed on for that duty.
After seven or eight tranatlantic voyages taking care of 'basket cases' it got to him. Big time. It DID happen. I know.

[MaineDem]

10. Same for my husband's uncle

Almost exactly the same situation. He had been in Italy. He was never the same once he came back. I remember him sitting in a rocking chair next to the woodstove. That's pretty much all he did for over 40 years.

War is not healthy...

[damnraddem]

8. Support the troops -- bring them home!

To coin a phrase: 'now, more then ever.'