Herbert: Paralyzed, a Soldier Asks Why

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15herbert.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

Sgt Simpson suffered a severed spinal when an IED exploded under his Humvee. Snipped this to get in revelent parts of story.

<snip>

Sergeant Simpson is paralyzed from the waist down. He said he remembers hearing, as he was airlifted from Baghdad back to Germany, the moans and the cries and the weeping of the many other wounded soldiers on the plane. And he remembers the grief of the severely wounded soldiers in the military hospital in Landstuhl, where most of the evacuees from Iraq are taken. He saw amputees, and soldiers who were paralyzed or had suffered brain damage or other crippling injuries.

"Some of them never wanted anybody to come into their room," he said. "They never wanted to talk to anybody. The ones with the lesser injuries - you know, maybe got shot in the arm, that kind of thing - they were more upbeat."

<snip>

But when I asked if he still loved the military itself, he paused and then said:

"Not as much. That's basically because we were over there, all these young guys, doing our jobs, but we really didn't know why we were there. I ask myself, 'What was our purpose?' And to this day I still can't figure out our purpose for being there."

He said he accepted his obligation, as a soldier, to fight. He is not resentful. But he would have appreciated a little more clarity about what he was fighting for.

[JohnyCanuck]

1. And here's his answer.

[Rose Siding]

2. Bob Herbert keeps writing what we need to read

damn