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Sunday, May 6, 2007

Upset About Walter Reed?

posted by on May 6 at 18:41 PM

Let’s see you shed some tears about this:

As the U.S. military prepares for an eventual handover of security duties to Iraqi forces, more of Iraq’s 120,000 soldiers are advancing to the front lines of the war, and more are being wounded[….]

Though Iraqis fight alongside Americans, their destinies diverge upon injury. Wounded U.S. soldiers are typically flown within one day to a first-class military hospital in Germany and arrive within 72 hours at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where amputees receive extensive rehabilitation and prosthetic limbs at a cost to taxpayers of $58,000 to $157,000 per soldier, according to a 2006 study by the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Institution.

Decent military hospitals existed under Saddam Hussein, but they were looted during the war and their doctors fled. So while some seriously injured Iraqi soldiers now receive initial treatment at sophisticated U.S. military facilities in Iraq, they must recover in public hospitals where medicines and highly trained staff are scarce. There is one military prosthetics clinic in the country, little in the way of mental health services and no burn center.

This is obviously a piggyback story, but it’s an important one, and Karin Bruillard deserves as much play as Dana Priest and Anne V. Hall got—if not, you know, a Pulitzer.

RSS icon Comments

1

What's with the weird, aggressive implication in the post title here? So people who are upset about Walter Reed are--what?--selfish? Shortsighted? Is it somehow not understandable that Americans are more focused on the bad treatment (relatively) our government has given its own soldiers than the bad treatment being given to Iraqis? Aren't these different issues? Why so hostile?

Posted by Gecck | May 6, 2007 7:39 PM
2

Oh, they're those silly brown people we liberated. If they aren't happy to be injured in the long war for freedom, that's not our problem. It's not like WE looted their hospitals. We were busy securing the oil ministry.

Besides, everyone knows that Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were lovers.

Posted by Good Republican | May 6, 2007 8:28 PM
3

So now crying on command is, well, expected? And its purpose is...

Posted by Miss Stereo | May 6, 2007 9:05 PM
4

a report came out on saturday and reprinted in the pi, it said, that the majority of US soldiers specially the marines, dont beleive Iraqi civilians should be treated fairly and with dignity. wow. the longer soldiers stay the more likely they are to view all civilians as targets, and the more war crimes that will be commited and covered up.

let us be honest, most people here dont care about the close to 1 million iraqi dead, they do not care about the thousands of children killed and maimed every month, they care about our boys and most dont beleive our boys commit atrocities over there.

american losess have been very small compared to iraqis, most people here dont really feel the war and most have not lost people they know... yet. 3 thousand plus lives is tragic, specially for the loved ones, but thats how many died in a single day in stalingrad or a week in bosnia hercegovinia or chechnya.

most of the death is happening in the iraqi side. think if half a million americans had died already. we would have ourselves a real anti war movement.

unfortunately, one day we are going to pay a heavy price for the carnage and suffering we caused for no reason whatsover. i do hope im wrong.

Posted by rico suave | May 6, 2007 10:32 PM
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rico? you are so not wrong.

Posted by adrian! | May 6, 2007 11:31 PM
6

World war will never stop, so long as we can relative peace, security, we can enough! All human activities, caused by the strengths and weaknesses of nature of human .

Posted by Amber | May 7, 2007 1:43 AM
7

I find politics fascinating, but to be honest if you asked me who Walter Reed was, I would probably guess he was the new Valerie Plame character (you know how novels or plays do that, bring in someone to shift the plot). I'm reminded of a recent foo-foo belltown bugwig cocktail assemblance I was at recently. Somehow, Sec. of the Interior James Watt (under Reagan) was brought up in chattervation to emphasize the point on how these 'controversial' people are so easily forgotten, and how nowadays the names churn over you know how often.

So Walter Reed, doesn't it sound like the name of a junior high school or something, something, something... like Roosevelt High School! Don't mean to take the news fire from some poster, but slogging my way to the fridge this morning, the Ellington Music award in NY was announced on the radio.

Posted by Garrett | May 7, 2007 7:31 AM
8

As Americans we respect life and hold it precious. Soldiers and Marines feel the same way, and they have demonstrated this in their actions in Iraq--I've seen them in action and witnessed the restraint after they lost fellow brothers in arms. We Americans do not know how blessed we are with a military that is strong, a people who value life and a democracy that will stand the test of time. The Iraqis will need to hold value to life and not allow the insurgents to kill their people. They must also muster the will to fight back, fight internal strife, fight against their own sects in order to again hold value to life and a new way of governance called democracy. Look back on our country and the struggles we had. Look back in Europe and see the same struggles following WWII. We must remember that the American military enables us to keep close our values and liberties. Thank God we have built this strong military and can walk the streets at night safely, not worry about an IED on the interstate and not have to run for cover because of indirect fire. All of us must support our troops. All of us must continue to support the fledgling Iraqi government because the alternative is not pleasant--an unstable Iraq will allow the Iranians to move in along with the insurgents. They will exploit the innocent people of Iraq. The American blood shedded these past four years will then be in vain. The Iraqi blood will furthermore be in vain. I pray for our troops safety and pray that Iraq will survive the close fight and win against the evil insurgents.

Posted by Joe | May 10, 2007 6:27 PM
9

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11

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12

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