annatopia | paint a vulgar picture
Anna’s got a great rant up on the 2nd anniversary of the War On (Some Countries that had Nothing to do with 9/11 or) Terror (check the link above for the sources and full quotes). It begins with a look at the “signature” war wound of the Iraq War…
In each war, a new wound emerges – an injury or illness that comes to typify the conflict, says Craig Hyams, a doctor and Veterans Administration official who has done a study of war wounds. In World War I, poison gases damaged lungs. In World War II, radiation from atomic bombs caused cancer. In Korea, the intense cold led to circulation problems. And in Vietnam, Agent Orange led to skin disorders.
Military doctors describe Radhay’s injuries as the emerging signature wound of the Iraq war. And they say the wound – called traumatic brain injury – carries many consequences.
According to doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., 60 percent of the wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq have traumatic brain injuries.
Well, traumatic brain injuries are in vogue this week. The Republicans seem to really really care about the long-term treatment of such devastating cases, like Terri Schiavo. Certainly we can expect them to care for the soldiers who fight for our freedom (Support The Troops!) if they should happen to meet a fate somewhat like Terri’s, right?
Recently, White House budget officials reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is scheduled to receive an almost billion-dollar budget cut by 2006, if projections stay on target. For veterans, out-of-pocket health care expenses like drug co-pays and new medical enrollment fees – of which the VA will cover less – are on the rise.
Oh. Well, that’s just general care and prescription drugs. Surely a serious case of brain trauma will be cared for, right?
Reauthorization of the Federal TBI Act that includes directives to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) needs to be completed this session of Congress.
As I am sure you have heard, the President’s budget request has level funded the CDC and eliminated the HRSA Federal TBI Program.
TBI, that’s the act that cares for the wounded soldiers in severe brain trauma cases who require lifelong intensive care. Like Terri Schiavo.
Finally, there’s the other kind of brain trauma – the psychological kind – that will be leaving scars on the soldiers and our society for years to come:
[Returned Iraq veteran Jeffrey Lucey] spoke of a small Iraqi boy, bloody and prone in the dusty street, shot in the head and the chest and still holding a small, bloodstained American flag in his hands. He spoke of his horror as an American tank lumbered down the street, how he had bolted from his own vehicle and, as gunfire rippled the sand around him, moved the tiny corpse to the sad sanctuary of a nearby alley.
Lucey, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war and a student at the college, committed suicide on June 22. He was 23.
