Posted on 11/11/2009 7:19:53 AM PST by yoe
Far from winding down, the numbers of wounded U.S. soldiers coming home have continued to swell. The problem is especially acute among those who fought in Afghanistan, where nearly four times as many troops were injured in October as a year ago.
Amputations, burns, brain injuries and shrapnel wounds proliferate in Afghanistan, due mostly to crude, increasingly potent improvised bombs targeting U.S. forces. Others are hit by snipers' bullets or mortar rounds.
With Veterans Day on Wednesday, wounded veterans from the recent conflicts consider the toll of these injuries, and the rough road ahead for the injured. Of particular concern are the so-called hidden wounds, traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder that can have side effects such as irritability and depression.
Since 2007, more than 70,000 service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury — more than 20,000 of them this year, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. Most of the injuries are mild but leave symptoms such as headaches and difficulty concentrating.
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Sickening. We have family on the way over there and more getting notice to go again. I pray every night that America will do the right thing next election and weaken this yahoo by taking away his majority in congress.
Last night we had dinner with friends. The three guys all conservative, but we rarely agree on the interpretation of events, but we all agreed that Zero’s hesitation has sent an enormous message..that all he wants is out. The troops also are operating under an unreasonable rule of engagement which makes them the target of the day. Return fire only if you can insure that all civilians are clear. The Taliban are surrounding themselves with women and children.
We also agreed that Army COS should be fired..
Last night we had dinner with friends. The three guys all conservative, but we rarely agree on the interpretation of events, but we all agreed that Zero’s hesitation has sent an enormous message..that all he wants is out. The troops also are operating under an unreasonable rule of engagement which makes them the target of the day. Return fire only if you can insure that all civilians are clear. The Taliban are surrounding themselves with women and children.
We also agreed that Army COS should be fired..I might add that one of us had a son who is high up in military and just returned from A last week.
Obama’s fault.
The ROE’s have been getting worse as time goes by. It has reached the point of ridiculous.
Now "commander zero" extends a hand to Iran, condemns "terror" attacks against them and willfully ignores their role in terrorists attacks against our forces.
Our son, a Marine, will be getting word on where he’s headed once Obama makes the decision. He’s in line to go to Afghanistan if Obama takes McChrystal’s advice.
My feeling is we are going to fight to a draw—there will be no victory. This president doesn’t want victory. We’re going to give the Taliban control of the remote areas, cutting deals. We’re going to say Karzai’s government is too corrupt and they’re on their own. And then we’ll say we tried to do the right thing but we needed a good and willing partner—and didn’t get it.
In the meantime, we’ll suffer more casualties, more wounded just so this president can look like he tried. After all, he repeatedly drummed that Afghanistan was the “good” war, and we took our eye off the ball.
I’m sorry, but we shouldn’t sacrifice one more life or doom one more young soldier to a life of disability just to save the president face.
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