Voices From The front

by digby

I highly recommend this series in the LA Times about wounded military in Iraq and Afghanistan. (There are some very graphic pictures, so don’t look if you have a weak stomach. It’s the real face of the war in all its bloody horror.)

It’s quite a tribute to these soldiers’ courage and the miracle of modern medicine. There have been more than 17,000 wounded in Iraq thus far, an average of 110 per week. In past wars a vast number of them would have died. Today, with great battlefield medicine and immediate transport to Europe and the States, most of them pull through. But their wounds are grievous and their lives will never be the same. The primary means of wounding them isn’t bullets — it’s explosive devices.

These people have made a great sacrifice for a cynical, political purpose and it makes me furious. It’s not the first time this has happened in history, but it damned well ought to be the last time the US ever does it.

.