Iraq war's human toll could be felt for decades (on US Soldiers)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1001/p01s02-woiq.html

Politicians and the press tend to tally the human costs of going to war by counting those killed. So far, that's 311 Americans in Iraq and 88 more as part of "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan. If one dates this newly defined "war on terror" back to the 1983 car bomb attack on the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, another 300 or so American lives have been lost.
But the number of those wounded in action (or injured in combat-zone accidents) is far higher. And while combat deaths have been relatively low since the Vietnam War, the ratio of these nonfatal casualties to war fatalities is increasing - from 3 to 1 in World War II to more than 5 to 1 in Iraq (1,691 to date).

With no end in sight to a substantial US presence in Iraq, the number of nonfatal casualties (now averaging more than eight per day) is likely to keep increasing, experts say. And beyond the human dimension, the costs of such casualties, which tend to be overlooked as part of the cost of national security and foreign policy, will continue for decades as well. Among those costs: rehabilitation, retraining, postcombat counseling, long-term medical treatment, and assisted-living care.

<snip>

But what this also results in is "a large number of survivors with permanent physical and emotional scars, not to mention profound disabilities," says Loren Thompson, head of security studies at the Lexington Institute in Alexandria, Va. "Not only are some wartime wounds uncommonly complex to treat, but the range of treatments provided - including counseling, assisted living, disability benefits, and so on - can be quite extensive."

[Cappurr]

1. This is absolutely true

We've seen in in the Vietnam vets. I was talking to my son last night and told him how I thanked God every day that he had left the reserves about 5 months before 9.11. He told me his unit was called to Iraq. He is all blase about it.....its a job, etc., etc. But he doesn't know. I NEVER want my son to experience that. His father served 20 years. My father and Uncle fought in WWII. This family has done enough. (BY the way, my uncle who saw a lot of combat was a very, very strange man). My ex=husband was Signal Corps so even tho he went to Nam, he didn't have to kill anyone

[fknobbit]

2. "Bring Um on"

I don't remember where I picked this up, not my creation... I put it in "my documents" and read it from timr to time. Being a disabled Viet Vet It touches me deeply because it is so true.

Armchair "patriots" who spend their days watching canned reports approved by
the Whitehouse, waving flags and cheering for the slaughter, understand
nothing about freedom. They are powerless sheep. Leave them to graze until the time of cull. When young people now in the service eventually realize they have been used
as dupes to advance the power-lust of a handful of wealthy imperialists,
then we'll see a change of regime.

When enough of this country's children come home in bodybags; when enough
people in the military have seen the corpses of their fallen comrades
stacked upon the heap of never-ending, disremembered wars; when enough
impaired veterans are denied treatment for their battle wounds; their due
for battles fought; when yet-to-be-conceived misshapen children begin
arriving; when their families begin to go hungry --- then, a revolution
will begin.

Here is the one military force in the world that the cabal has (maybe) not
considered taking on. What will they do about 250,000 (+/- 100,000,000)
unemployed and disenchanted U.S. soldiers trained to kill? (They could wait
for them to die from toxicity, of course -- that doesn't seem to takes as
long as it used to.)

Forty percent of this nation's homeless are Vietnam veterans. Thirty-six
percent of Desert Storm veterans are afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome. (The
U.S. military continues to deny the existence of the disease.) The level of
contamination to which our troops in Iraq are now being exposed is far
higher than the previous "mission". Of course, the finger will be pointed
at someone else -- but the witnesses will KNOW.

If you think the Vietnam vets were angry; you just watch and WAIT.

[Martin Eden]

3. Bush cabal ... the ultimate hypocrites

When concerned citizens question the need to send our young people halfway around the globe to invade and occupy a country that hasn't attacked or threatened us, we are accused of being unpatriotic and not supporting the troops.

The lying chickenhawk corporate thieves in the White House and the right wing media are the ones who are not supporting the troops! Ultimate sacrifices are being made not in defense of home and liberty, but to line the pockets and satisfy the imperial ambitions of these neocon bastards.

The troops, just like the civilians we bomb, are written off as "acceptable losses". Those that survive see their pay and benefits cut, and when they get sick from the toxic substances they encounter in the line of duty, the official policy is to deny the causes of their illness.

If you haven't seen this already, check out this interview with Doug Rokke, the leading expert on the effects of depleted uranium munitions:
http://www.arras.net/circulars/archives/000286.html