"The Grief of Baghdad"- the 16,000 wounded American soldiers

[G_j]

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20080/

The Grief of Baghdad

By Evan Derkacz, AlterNet. Posted October 5, 2004.


The painful stories and pictures of some of the 16,000 American soldiers – like Cpl. Tyson Johnson – wounded in Iraq might move Americans to action. Maybe that's why we don't see them in the mainstream media. After having seen a couple of his buddies turn up dead in a ditch during high school, Tyson Johnson decided to leave his Prichard, Alabama home and make something of himself "because I knew where my life was headed."

So he joined the National Guard first, and then, for a bonus of $2999, he joined the army.

Now 22, he's back in Prichard, his life in ruins.



Johnson's story is just one of many from Nina Berman's powerful new book, "Purple Hearts: Back from Iraq'' (Trolley Ltd.)http://www.purpleheartsbook.com/ It contains short testimonials and a photo essay illuminating one of the dark corners of the war in Iraq: the stories and pictures of the permanently wounded men and women home from the war. If the pumped-up "Army of One" recruiting campaign is the "before" photo, "Purple Hearts" is the "after."

Cpl. Johnson's photo in the book is subtly disturbing; it creeps up on you. On a sunny Southern day, he leans gently against a chain-link fence, eyes downcast. Baggy basketball shorts sit low, Hanes underwear defiantly above the waistline. His trim torso is a collection of scars, the largest of which snakes from the bottom of the breastbone, diving into his navel, disappearing finally into that exposed Hanes waistband. Others emerge from his back; there's a patch covering something over his heart; what appears to be the work of sprayed shrapnel across his left side.

Despite the message written on his body, it's his words that will haunt you: "Well, uh, shrapnel down the back, shrapnel that came in and hit my head, punctured my lungs. I broke both of my arms. I lost a kidney. My intestines was messed up. They took an artery out of my left leg and put it into this right arm. They pretty much took my life. Pretty much."

..more..

[fishface]

1. "Ahm cutting the VA's budget next year if re-elected"

"That lazy bastard should get a job"

signed. GW Moron Bush

[monarch]

2. Edwards should ask Cheney:

"How do you sleep at night?"

[King Coal]

4. No kidding. He should call him what he is:

A War Criminal! War profiteering is treason.

[Karenina]

3. Bringumon...

[gratuitous]

5. And he's 22

He could easily live another 50 years. What's it going to take for the U.S. to make it up to Mr. Johnson?

[G_j]

7. to think in that in the year 2054

that the terrible effects of Bush's war-horny actions will be haunting us still, not to mention the Iraqi people.

[smallprint]

6. Wow, very powerful and moving

:kick:

[young_at_heart]

8. "The soldiers are doing this for you"

That is what I keep reading in the LTTE section of our newspaper. "They are fighting there for your freedom so you don't have to fight here". I wonder just how many gullible people believe this craziness. I guess they say, "If the president says it, it must be true", and never do any analysis..........SAD!!

[G_j]

9. kick

[G_j]

10. morning reality kick