Wounded Veterans

Last night I watched this CNN feature To Iraq and Back and found it deeply troubling. I have never visited a military hospital (or served in the military), and seeing those young men a women, whose lives are destroyed, was heartbreaking.

I have long felt that the U.S. has an obligation to stay in Iraq to establish some order out of the mess it created, but this Woodruff story makes me want to just get everyone out immediately. The emotional shock of seeing healthy young people turned into vegetables by IED's leaves me unable to move on to my daily life.



However, I still support a phased draw down of U.S. troops beginning asap. That is the best way to avoid genocide and an unbridled fight amongst sectarian militias. I have to consider all people invoved, not just Americans. Further, Bush and Cheney have made practically every mistake possible with the Iraqi war, and I do not trust their judgement in deciding to have a troup surge (with only 21,500 more troups).

The Woodruff piece uncovered a major discrepancy between the number of wounded reported by the Dept. of Defense––26,000––and the number of wounded being treated by the VA–over 200,000!!! A couple of months ago, a poll came out, which documented the Iraqi wounded at over 650,000 people. The U.S. government says it's no where near that number (I think it estimated 90,000).

If the real number of American wounded is over 200,000, just think of how many Iraqis have been wounded. The Iraqi wounded are just incapacitated as the American wounded, plus they don't have as good medical care! (which isn't so good according to Woodruff and the recent news about Walter Reed Hospital).

Too everyone who complains about politicians and says they are all the same, just remember that if Gore had won (and he only "lost" Florida by 500 votes) we would not be in Iraq. I wonder how many dead or wounded American soldiers voted for Bush. That vote cost them their lives. They voted trusting the Commander and Chief to lead them wisely, and his abysmal failure to do so has lead to over 30,000 dead (Americans and Iraqi's) and close to 1,000,000 people wounded. I agree with Harry Reed, "This is the worst foreign policy mistake in U.S. history."

Who you vote for does matter.

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I just heard an interview with Bob and Lee Woodruff on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. What amazing people.

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