the wounded (Warning: VERY graphic/not pics)

[nostamj]

this is utterly horrifying. and it's a snip from a 4-page story. the bushies are NOT going to be happy with TIME....

For several seconds after the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) drilled through the back of their armored M113 "battle taxi," the soldiers inside, mainlining adrenaline, continued firing. Then they started screaming. "It blew my leg clean off," says Private First Class Tristan Wyatt, who was standing at the rear of the armored personnel carrier (APC), unloading an M-240 machine gun at a dozen or more Iraqis who had ambushed them minutes before. He was the first to be hit. The RPG then passed through Sergeant Erick Castro's hip, spinning him violently to the floor. His left leg was still attached — but barely. "I picked up my leg and put it on the bench," he says, "and lay down next to it." Finally, the RPG shredded Sergeant Mike Meinen's right leg. "It was pretty much torn off," he says. "There was just some meat and tendons holding it on."

<snip>

The medic, the wounded soldiers and their comrades began a frantic race against the clock. Buddies pressed their hands into Castro's hip wound to keep him from bleeding to death. The wound was so massive that his tourniquet was useless. He handed it to Wyatt, who needed two to stanch the blood flowing from his femoral artery. Amid the mayhem, Meinen, who had been manning a 50-cal. machine gun, noticed that he didn't have any feeling in his right foot. "It felt like it had gone to sleep on me, so I picked my foot up and was trying to massage it, trying to get the feeling back," he says. "But then it dawned on me: it wasn't even connected. So I put it on the floor."

They tried to raise their wounded legs to slow the bleeding. "There was nothing to elevate my leg except for the piece of my leg that had been blown off from the knee down," Wyatt says. "So I took my leg and jammed it under the stump to keep it pointing up. It was kind of messy."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031110-536257,00.html

[grannylib]

1. On my way to store to buy that magazine right now...thanks!

[trotsky]

2. Good article,

but it ends on a very pro-war, pro-Bush note. One of the soldiers basically buys into the argumentum ad consequentiam fallacy. He can't stand the thought that he might have lost his leg because Bush lied, so therefore Bush did not lie.

I don't think Bushco appreciates the whole article, but it finishes a whole lot better for them than it starts.

[oc2002]

4. morphine

denial about the reasons they are there is a form of morphine, I do not blame them for being upbeat. They just made a HUGE sacrifice for thier country, and they all deserve our support and gratitude.

Unfortunetley they will get little from this administration.

www.vetsforjustice.com

[Atlant]

3. And here's why we have such an up-hill battle, folks.

> The three wounded soldiers are united not only in their good humor
> but also their unequivocal support for the war. Wyatt doesn't much
> care for those who think Bush fudged the intelligence on Saddam
> Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. "That makes you feel like you
> fought for nothing or you fought for a liar," he says. "They're
> telling me I went out there and I got my leg blown off for a liar, and
> I know that's just not true."

These gguys were there, saw the truth (about the lack of WMD. etc.)
first hand, yet they still can't accept it. They'll probably vote for
Bush in '04.

Atlant

[oc2002]

6. how long did it take for America to wake up to Veitnam? ?

nt.

[LoneStarLiberal]

9. Spot-On Why We're Losing the Battle to Bush

"That makes you feel like you
fought for nothing or you fought for a liar," he says. "They're
elling me I went out there and I got my leg blown off for a liar, and
I know that's just not true."

He isn't the only one in Iraq who feels this way and this isn't limited to soldiers in Iraq. It's prevalent in the civilian population here in the U.S. People simply refuse to consider that the administration could have been so reckless and/or so fiendish as to push this war for no apparent reason.

There is a growing amount of personal dislike and personal anger with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan over their situations there; that should not automatically be assumed to be dislike for George Bush or his administration, though.

For both military and civilians, it is simply too much to fathom that they have supported, fought, and had friends and family die all for a lie. It is simply too massive to consider.

[nostamj]

11. the troops only get FAUX News....

they are grossly under/mis-informed.

and THAT has been proven. FAUX news watchers don't know shit. or, conversely, they ONLY know shit.

[izzie]

5. Send it on to the WH.

I used to know a Dutch man that used to go to Germany every few years and that is always what he could recall. Drove him nuts even if he hated the Germans for what they did to his country, Young men standing around with out a leg or arm or both legs gone. Sad picture.

[nostamj]

12. please....

no one in the WH is going to worry their "beautiful minds" over the horrors being suffered by people who can't afford $2000 a plate to fawn over pResident POS.

they DON'T CARE about lives.
they CARE about war profits.

[nostamj]

7. the way I read this story...

a single hit resulted in FOUR amputations.

the reason they won't tell the wounded story is because it is even more horrifying than the deaths

[Jack The Tab]

8. You hit the nail on the head...

The wounded's stories are awful - they have to live with debilitating injuries.

[Karenina]

10. WITHOUT proper health care.

.

[Gin]

13. They are in denial....but when the health care system at home fails them..

they may see the light.

[nostamj]

14. CBS Evening News: 7,700 wounded or ill

SEVEN THOUSAND, SEVEN HUNDRED

bush says: 'worth the sacrifice to win this battle in the war on terror'

no HELL is HELLISH enough for that POS!

[leftofthedial]

15. I wonder if this will appear in Halliburton's annual report

Operations in the Middle Eastern Business Unit

Get us out of Iraq now and bring the troops home.

[jayfish]

16. Kick!

Today I was in a heated debate with my boss about casualties in Iraq and told him he needed to read this story.

Jay