It sucks

November 11, 2003 7:18 AM

It sucks to be wounded.
posted by kozad (26 comments total)

very well put--thanks--especially this:
...But to risk these young men and women when there were other paths to follow is, to us, a national sin, one we cannot and must not ever forgive.
posted by amberglow at 7:25 AM on November 11, 2003

"We so seldom hear much about the real impact of shell and rifle fire on the wounded, almost as if they were only a statistic, a number, not flesh."

Y'wanna know why? Cuz when the media focuses on the gory details, it increases the cry for peace among the populous, which goes against the grain of the present administration's interest in warmongering. So they downplay things like how many of our brave men and women are coming back in body bags and coffins, and how many of them are coming back in wheelchairs or like swiss cheese.

If we saw them as more than a statistic, we'd want to stop the fighting, which is not in the power players' best interests right now. Don't hate the players: hate their games. Even though it's the players who make the game.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:03 AM on November 11, 2003

I am not a Bush hater. But I too am so torn up about these young men and women. I have run into too many crippled up Vietnam vets (mentally and/or physically). May God have mercy on all of our men and women whose only crime was wanting to serve.
posted by konolia at 8:07 AM on November 11, 2003

May God have mercy on all of our men and women whose only crime was wanting to serve.

That's great, but this is about the wounded, not the deceased. Unless you mean ... nah, can't be.
posted by magullo at 9:11 AM on November 11, 2003

Mean what?

There are an infinite number of shades of grey when it comes to opinions-don't stick me in black or white.
posted by konolia at 10:08 AM on November 11, 2003

No way; I disagree: getting wounded is freaking great.
posted by xmutex at 10:14 AM on November 11, 2003

The point is: the wounded are largely ignored compared to the dead, and the cost to the nation is high (not to mention the obvious cost to the individuals and their families). I'm not saying that dead sliders are 'cheaper' or 'better', just that the wounded are essentially a hidden cost of the war.

What are we buying for such a high price?
posted by daver at 10:35 AM on November 11, 2003

*dreams of bush's mangled, eviscerated, twitching torso lying in hot sand*

no rush, medic. no rush.
posted by quonsar at 10:38 AM on November 11, 2003

I recall in reading somewhere that an awful lot of artillery-related wounds are the result not of shrapnel from an exploding projectile but of the bone shards from a nearby soldier who was a little too close to the detonation.

Which in turn reminds me of Bill Maudin's closing sentence in a discussion of artillery in his book Up Front: "Let's get the hell off this subject."
posted by alumshubby at 10:57 AM on November 11, 2003

Pornographer says he bought nude Jessica Lynch photos
By SARA KUGLER
Associated Press Writer
November 11, 2003, 12:37 PM EST
posted by matteo at 11:18 AM on November 11, 2003

Huh. Well, that's definitely getting the hell off the subject, true enough...
posted by alumshubby at 11:30 AM on November 11, 2003

This brings up another aggravating point about under-reporting: how many Iraqi civilians are getting killed or wounded every day? Is anyone keeping track? If not, why not? We're occupying and ransacking their country, shouldn't we have the numbers on how many lives we are destroying?

On preview, that's another thread matteo. Or not.
posted by squirrel at 11:31 AM on November 11, 2003

CJCoS Gen. Whatshisname was on the Today show this morning explaning to Katie Couric that we don't get to see flag-draped caskets coming off C-17s at Dover anymore because that dishonors the fallen Americans by making them into a spectacle. How does showing US troops being handled respectfully and accorded full military honors constitute a "spectacle," I wonder?
posted by alumshubby at 12:33 PM on November 11, 2003

My grandmother has fought the entire WWII (as a nurse, on the frontlines, the russian army); she has been wounded twice, with one of these almost killing her (a bullet 1cm from the heart). She was also among those that liberated two concentration camps and later Berlin.
She didn't see shrinks. She raised my father all on her own.
I told her about this article now (she called as i was reading it) and she said "it's terrible being wounded. it's even more terrible to not do anything, hide, and sit back hoping someone else is going to do it for you. Dictatorships must be destroyed whether or not they affect you personally."
posted by bokononito at 12:47 PM on November 11, 2003

I think you're right, XQUZYPHYR. But when did U.S. journalists become such cowards? I know this is something of a rhetorical question, but who do they work for, anyway? Shouldn't they be trying to get the truth to us in text and images and video whether the Bush administration wants us to have it or not?
posted by squirrel at 12:48 PM on November 11, 2003

It sucks to be wounded.
posted by kickingtheground at 1:16 PM on November 11, 2003

give your grandma a kiss, and thank her for me, bokonito! : >
I wonder how vets are treated in Russia and the former Soviet Union?

and squirrel, I believe they aren't allowed anywhere near the planes in Iraq or Germany or at Dover here to take the pics, even with zoom lenses.
posted by amberglow at 1:24 PM on November 11, 2003

that's another thread matteo. Or not.

I vote for "or not". She gets shot at, possibly raped (Thank God she can't remember anyway), her back (plus various other bones) is broken, she's a POW for a few weeks, the Pentagon's lies clumsily attempt to turn her into ms. Rambo, six months later she's still on crutches (no feeling in her left foot whatsoever 6 months later sounds very bad to me) and who knows if she'll ever walk again without the crutches,
AND
her naked pictures end up on Hustler (Flynt'll publish them, sooner or later, let's be realistic here), the Internet, whatever

it really sucks to be wounded. I bet she can confirm that

posted by matteo at 2:37 PM on November 11, 2003

If Larry Flynt were any kind of man he wouldn't even have said he had any pictures.

I wish this gal could catch a break. And no matter what kind of money she winds up getting out of this I bet she would trade every penny for getting her life back to normal.

And for the record I don't care if she was stark naked hanging from a chandelier. I'm not gonna hold it against her. We were all young and stupid once. That is, if the pics really ARE of her.
posted by konolia at 3:32 PM on November 11, 2003

I wish this gal could catch a break. And no matter what kind of money she winds up getting out of this I bet she would trade every penny for getting her life back to normal.
She can thank the Defense Department for creating the heroic myth that started all of this. At least now she's telling the real story, and taking back her identity. I wish her well, but realize she's already benefitted far more than all of her wounded counterparts--who don't get book and movie deals usually.
posted by amberglow at 3:44 PM on November 11, 2003

And for the record I don't care if she was stark naked hanging from a chandelier. I'm not gonna hold it against her. We were all young and stupid once

*frantically googles "konolia stark naked hanging from a chandelier"*


oh, and what amberglow said
posted by matteo at 3:50 PM on November 11, 2003

And for the record I don't care if she was stark naked hanging from a chandelier. I'm not gonna hold it against her. We were all young and stupid once.

You don't have to be young or stupid to hang naked from a chandelier.
posted by The God Complex at 7:47 PM on November 11, 2003

Dictatorships must be destroyed whether or not they affect you personally.

bokononito: So is your grandmother's moral imperative compelling you to join the army? There are still plenty of dictatorships that need fighting. Or is it enough for you to send other people to get killed or maimed to satisfy grandma's morality? It certainly was enough for all the chickenhawks who started this war.
posted by sic at 1:36 AM on November 12, 2003

How DO we get rid of evil tyrants?

I am asking a serious question. What other ways would there be? Is there a role the United Nations could have played but didn't? Would it have been moral to send in assassins to take out Saddam? Would it have made a difference in the long run? I am trying to think of a scenario that would stop the killing-but whether he was left in office to kill his own or whether we have the situation we are looking at now, no matter what I come up with people die and keep on dying.

And I cry daily about it.
posted by konolia at 4:25 AM on November 12, 2003

How DO we get rid of evil tyrants?
Would it have been moral to send in assassins to take out Saddam?

Saddam? I thought you guys were talking about Bush . . .
posted by pooligan at 5:29 AM on November 12, 2003

sic: um, yeah, i've been to the army. any more pretentious questions?

and amberglow: thankfully my grandma no longer (for many years already) lives in the Soviet Union. The vets there as far as she tells me are treated like shit, many resorting to living off their children's good will or begging. None of that thankfully affects her; living in Israel, the Israeli ministry of defense pays a special (quite significant) pension to every vet who was wounded in the WWII, no matter which army the vet served in. Oh, and she also released a book on the role of women in the war.. a little more of a role than jessica lynch's i'd say...
posted by bokononito at 10:02 AM on November 12, 2003