Sending Wounded Soldiers to the Front
12 March 2007 1:00 am by Taylor Marsh
Sending Wounded Soldiers to the Front
| To Bush and Congress. |
\”Support the troops\” Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney say. Republicans parroting
the line during every campaign. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh the first to
wave the flag and talk about soldiers, while Ann Coulter can\’t wait to call
Democrats out on, well, whatever she wants. Malkin, too, especially where the military is concerned. But if you think the Walter
Reed story is the breaking point, get ready for worse. The Republicans and
Joe Lieberman, among others, including every single Republican running for president in \’08, want to escalate the war in Iraq so badly they\’re
willing to do it on the backs of broken bodies and souls.
Cliff
Schecter posted on it earlier and when I read the Salon piece, I, too, felt
the
same outrage.
Just when you think Mr. Bush has reached his moral bankruptcy quota, you read
a story like this
one.
One female soldier with psychiatric issues and a spine problem has been in
the Army for nearly 20 years. \”My [health] is deteriorating,\” she
said over dinner at a restaurant near Fort Benning. \”My spine is separating.
I can\’t carry gear.\” Her medical records include the note \”unable
to deploy overseas.\” Her status was also reviewed on Feb. 15. And she
has been ordered to Iraq this week.The captain interviewed by Salon also requested anonymity because he fears
retribution. He suffered a back injury during a previous deployment to Iraq
as an infantry platoon leader. A Humvee accident \”corkscrewed my spine,\”
he explained. Like the female soldier, he is unable to wear his protective
gear, and like her he too was ordered to Iraq after his meeting with the division
surgeon and brigade surgeon on Feb. 15. He is still at Fort Benning and is
fighting the decision to send him to Baghdad. \”It is a numbers issue
with this whole troop surge,\” he claimed. \”They are just trying
to get those numbers.\”
We are now being told that the escalation is working. The Salon.com article
tells you how it\’s working. Through the bodies and very lives of soldiers who
have given more than their share, but are still being asked to take their broken
bodies back to the front.
What kind of nation have we become?
What kind of moral depravity drives Mr. Bush, the Republicans and even Joe
Lieberman and other Democrats, including the Senate leadership and the Blue Dogs, who continue to prop up the president\’s policies
at the expense of our very Armed Forces? After all, we can\’t have Congress cutting the funding for the escalation, now can we? That would be a political bridge to far, because not even our troops are as important as sticking this war to Bush.
What kind of country are we to allow this to happen, while Congress has not
the courage, spine or leadership to tell the president no?
Where. Is. The. Leadership?
Sacrificing our soldiers for Iraq is above and beyond the call of duty for any U.S. service person. Their mission was long ago accomplished, unlike Mr. Bush\’s. They volunteer to protect America. When will someone stand up and say this must stop?
I have never been more disgusted with Congress in my life and after the last few years that\’s saying something. We\’re now being told a compromise with no guarantee is the best the House can do.
