Relatives fear for forgotten war wounded

[Moses]

Relatives fear for forgotten war wounded

Soldiers speak out as evidence points to high levels of mental and physical injuries in Iraq conflict

Jason Burke, chief reporter
Sunday November 28, 2004
The Observer
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1361436,00.html

Nearly 3,000 British soldiers have been evacuated from Iraq to Britain for medical reasons since the beginning of hostilities there last year, The Observer can reveal.

The news will raise concern that the true cost of the British involvement in the war is being hidden. British forces have so far suffered 74 fatalities, details of which are released by the Ministry of Defence. But, in contrast with the Americans, the number of British soldiers wounded on the battlefield is not made public. Modern medical techniques and the widespread use of body armour mean around six men are wounded for every one killed.

The total of troops 'medically evacuated' from the Gulf - 2,754 since 1 March last year - includes soldiers with serious injuries and severe psychological disorders. The latest figures from the MoD show that 461 soldiers deployed in Iraq have been treated for mental health problems, 50 of whom were diagnosed as suffering from serious post-traumatic stress disorders. At least 12 have lost one or more limbs and scores more have suffered permanent harm from traumatic brain injuries or wounds that damage organs or the spine.

Serving soldiers cannot talk to the press, but one seriously injured infantryman's father told The Observer that men such as his son, who had had much of one leg shot away, risked being 'forgotten'.

'No one is talking about those who have been disabled for life. War cripples healthy young men and we should remember that,' he said.

MoD figures reveal that more than 80 servicemen have been discharged from the forces for medical reasons since the start of the conflict. Many more are undergoing treatment within the army system, some with terrible injuries.


They include two infantrymen with the Black Watch battle group controversially deployed to assist in the US assault on Falluja. The men had their legs amputated after being caught in a suicide bomb attack last month. In one deployment during the summer a single unit, the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, sustained more than 110 casual ties in a six-month tour, around half from enemy action.

Trooper Andy Julien of the Queen's Royal Lancers was left with appalling injuries when his tank was hit by friendly fire in Basra last year. Both his legs were crushed and brain injuries left him blind. After a string of operations, Julien, 19, has regained some of his sight but still cannot walk properly.

'I could cry when I look at the photographs taken at his passing out parade. The son that my husband and I had then is not the son we have now,' Julien's mother said.

'Before this he was a fit, energetic, popular boy, who loved sport. He was always laughing, joking and happy, but now it's rare to get a smile out of him. If he hears about Iraq, he gets so upset he cries.'

Specialists say the conditions in Iraq make psychological injury a high risk. The knowledge that the war is controversial in Britain can undermine soldiers' faith in the justification of taking lives and low-intensity counter-insurgency operations can be more damaging than more conventional combat because the enemy is often indistinguishable from civilians.

There are concerns that the numbers of soldiers with mental health injuries will rise sharply over the coming years. 'We are seeing the tip of the iceberg,' said Toby Elliott, chief executive of Combat Stress, which has registered more than 500 new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder in the last year. 'Some people suffer for decades without seeking help.'

Elliott said his organisation was concerned that many servicemen suffering from post-traumatic stress would discharge themselves from the forces without their condition being spotted by the military. 'That means they leave without care and without anyone aware of their injury,' Elliott said.

Some casualties are taking legal action. One soldier who suffered serious injuries when a US tank transporter rammed her vehicle in Iraq is suing the American military. The £1.2 million claim made by Corporal Jane McLauchlan, 33 - along with two other soldiers from the Royal Military Police and an interpreter - is believed to be the first brought by coalition troops against the US Army since the invasion of Iraq.

McLauchlan, who is still in the army, suffered multiple skull fractures, a fractured neck, a punctured lung, a broken leg, ribs and pelvis and a damaged liver when she was thrown from the marked Land Rover in the crash on 7 May last year. 'She has gone from being a fully operational military policeman to being a clerk,' her lawyer said last week. Last year 1,669 servicemen were 'medically downgraded' like McLauchlan, 468 following battlefield injuries and 140 because of mental and behavioural disorders.

Jerome Church, director of the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association (Blesma) said wounded soldiers received less attention today than previously. 'If someone was injured in Northern Ireland or the Falklands it was on the evening news. You at least had a press release,' he said. 'These days you don't hear about it. Iraq is not as dramatic as the Falklands. It is just a running sore.'

A spokesman for the MoD said: 'At the moment it is not meaningful to issue statistics [for wounded] because of the difficulty of classifying an injury.'

[Moses]

 War Toll a 'Horrific Cost'
    By Bill Scanlon
    The Rocky Mountain News

    Wednesday 01 December 2004


Physician, Iraqi offer views of a conquered country.

    Soldiers missing limbs. Young men with massive brain injuries and severed spinal cords.

    Neurosurgeon Dr. Gene Bolles saw the "horrific cost" of war as he tried to patch up American soldiers injured in Iraq.

    When he came back to the United States in February, he switched on the news and found that Americans were obsessed with a huge breaking story: Janet Jackson's exposed breast.

    "I saw things that made me sick to my stomach - kids with one arm and two legs missing," said Bolles, 68, a former flight surgeon in Vietnam. "I came back and all I heard about was Janet Jackson. I said to myself, 'Is this all the American public is interested in?' "

    Bolles, who practices in Denver, joined an Iraqi dissident in lower downtown Tuesday to speak about his opposition to America's presence in Iraq.The news conference was organized by Physicians for Social Responsibility, a group that has opposed most U.S. involvement in wars.

    For several months in 2003, Bolles was a civilian contractor for the U.S government and the only neurosurgeon based at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Landstuhl is where most of the severely injured U.S. soldiers were sent before returning to the United States.

    Americans know about 1,300 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, but they don't know that tens of thousands of soldiers who may return with chronic pain, debilitating injuries and post-traumatic-stress disorder, Bolles said. Nor do they hear about the thousands of Iraqi citizens and insurgents killed and injured.

    He said he's not expert on the best exit strategy, but he believes diplomacy deserves more effort. "We've had all these wars in the 20th century. Is this what we're going to expect for the next century, too?"

    Colorado Physicians for Social Responsibility Executive Director Barbara Laing highlighted a new report in the medical journal Lancet that estimates 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Other estimates range from 10,000 to 37,000 civilian deaths.

    Joining Bolles was Ibrahim Kazerooni, imam of the Islamic Center of Ahl Al-Beit in Denver. He fled his native Iraq at 15 after being repeatedly imprisoned and tortured by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime for his opposition to the government.

    Kazerooni has had frequent contact with friends and relatives in Iraq. He says with each new foray, the United States is losing the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

    First and foremost, Iraqis don't like to be occupied, regardless of the foreign nation's intentions, Kazerooni said.

    Early on, the United States didn't understand the Iraqi culture, he said. The decision to dismiss 450,000 Iraqi troops meant 450,000 breadwinners could no longer afford to feed their families, he said. "Overnight, that created resentment from two million Iraqis."

    Before Hussein's murderous regime, Shiites and Sunni, Arabs and Kurds proved they could live in relative peace, he said. But in a state of war, factions erupt and turn violent.

    Not everyone shares the views of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Paul Dooley, senior U.S. adviser for Iraq's Ministry of Health after the invasion, is a strong supporter of the U.S. presence in Iraq.

    He told reporters last month: "The Iraqis sure don't like being occupied, but they love being free."

    Dooley also talked about how much America has improved health care in Iraq. The Iraqi Ministry of Health is spending $38 per person on health care this year, compared to less than a dollar per person in 2002, before the invasion, Dooley said.

---

WHO IS PAUL DOOLEY?!

 <br>

[calabi-yau]

It just keeps getting worse and worse. Anyone can see it.
Where IS America ? Where are the 50 millions who voted against Bush ? Shouldn't they be a force unto themselves ?

I sit right on the border yet America may just as well be a world away. I just don't get it or has fear totally washed over the continent.

[Moses]

It truly becomes more frightening by the minute.

I saw an ad on television for a new Microsoft product that is some kind of computer and television all in one or something. But the ad touted how Americans could now do everything "within your comfort zone", and a dotted line was drawn around the American on the couch and the area around the television set-- the American's "comfort zone", in other words was a rectangular area encompassing couch and television set.

It was particularly frightening and ominous and I believe was meant to mean what you and I would think it to mean-- the person I was watching with turned and looked at me, with the same horrific recognition.

I'm not sure I grasp the entire meaning, but it seemed to relate to what is happening-- confining Americans to a zone-- a "comfort zone" dictated by media content. No reaching to exceed one's grasp, or broadening one's horizons, or anything like that-- just the opposite -- in fact, the lack of space involved was also very scarey.

[Moses]

The Way Our Country Treats Returning Soldiers is a National Shame
    By Tim Pluta
    The Asheville Citizen-Times

    Friday 03 December 2004

    Supporters of our invasion of Iraq cheerlead from their armchairs for the women and men of our military. Some folks send packages of goodies and letters to soldiers and sailors. Veterans for Peace stand on a street corner each week asking to bring our troops home. These are all examples of different ways we express our support for U.S. soldiers.

    But what about support when they come back? While some historical references reflect an effort to support our soldiers upon their return from battle, our history of neglecting soldiers also flourishes and seems to be getting worse.

    For example, in 1693 Plymouth Colony offered support with an order that any disabled soldier injured while defending the colony would be maintained by the colony for life. And in 1780, the Continental Congress offered half pay for seven years to officers who served until the end of the war.

    However, the Continental Congress also promised some soldiers land in exchange for their service. Looking at genealogy sites on the Internet, one can find descendants of these soldiers still trying to collect on those unfulfilled promises.

    In 1917, Congress authorized disability compensation, insurance and vocational rehabilitation to help support the 200,000 wounded and 5 million returning soldiers from World War I.

    On the other hand, in 1924, these same World War I veterans were promised a bonus payment of $1,000. In July of 1932, during the Great Depression, between 12,000 and 15,000 veterans and their families marched in Washington, D.C., to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They camped in shantytowns along the Anacostia River until their numbers grew to 25,000. At one point, 20,000 veterans walked slowly up and down Pennsylvania Avenue for three straight days protesting the government decision not to pay their bonus. By late July, riots began after police shot two of the marchers. Gen. Douglas MacArthur then led a machine-gun squadron, troops with fixed bayonets and a number of tanks to destroy the shantytowns and disperse the marchers with tear gas, injuring hundreds of veterans in the process.

    In 1944, the GI Bill of Rights was enacted. Veterans were supported by providing money for education, low-interest mortgage loans and $20 a week while looking for employment.

    While some of these benefits are still available today, nearly 300,000 current veterans can be found homeless each night, and more than 500,000 veterans will experience homelessness sometime during the year.

    Korean and Vietnam veterans received little of the support and recognition that previous veterans received. Thirty years after being exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, and suffering numerous medical problems, a neighbor of mine finally began to receive compensation from our government's admission that Agent Orange is toxic.

    Because of situations like this, nearly three times the number of Vietnam veterans died after coming home than died during the war.

    Today, there are reports of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, being secretly transferred from Andrews Air Force base, under the cover of darkness, to military transport planes and dispersed out to military hospitals across the country. Why? So that we do not see them.

    Coffins of dead U.S. soldiers cannot be photographed returning home. Why? So that we do not see them.

    Is this the kind of support we want to give to our soldiers? Hiding them from the public eye? Relegating them to the streets to fend for themselves? Are we trying to hide something?

    Is it easier to support the mythical, invisible image of a brave soldier fighting for "glory" and "freedom" than it is to support the very real limbless, psychologically damaged or lifeless person returning from Iraq?

    Why are we increasing spending in Iraq to make more disabled veterans, and then cutting spending to care for them when they come home by closing VA hospitals and decreasing benefits?

    Come on. We can do better than that.

    If we really want to support our soldiers, let's demand proper medical care and compensation when they come home. Let's make sure that every soldier returning from duty in a war zone is evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) so that we can detect and treat the estimated 1 in 3 Iraq veterans who will have it.

    Let's assure that all U.S. soldiers from the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq are tested for exposure to the wind - dispersed, depleted uranium (DU) that is suspected to have caused numerous illnesses in more than 200,000 Gulf War veterans, and has caused and will continue to cause birth defects, cancer and early deaths for decades to come. Support our troops? Yeah, bring them home and help them heal.

---

    Tim Pluta is a veteran currently living in Mars Hill. He can be contacted at [e-mail].


 

[Moses]

U.S. Military 'Obstructing' Medical Care in Iraq
    By Dahr Jamail
    Inter Press Service

    Monday 13 December 2004

    Baghdad - The U.S. military has been preventing delivery of medical care in several instances, medical staff say.

    Iraqi doctors at many hospitals have reported raids by coalition forces. Some of the more recent raids have been in Amiriyat al-Fallujah, about 10km to the east of Fallujah, the town to which U.S. forces have laid bloody siege. Amiriyat al-Fallujah has been the source of several reported resistance attacks on U.S. forces.

    The main hospital in Amiriyat al-Fallujah was raided twice recently by U.S. soldiers and members of the Iraqi National Guard, doctors say. The first time was November 29 at 5:40am, and the second time was the following day, said a doctor at the hospital who did not want to give his real name for fear of U.S. reprisals.

    In the first raid about 150 U.S. soldiers and at least 40 members of the Iraqi National Guard stormed the small hospital, he said.

    They were yelling loudly at everyone, both doctors and patients alike, the young doctor said. They divided into groups and were all over the hospital. They broke the gates outside, they broke the doors of the garage, and they raided our supply room where our food and supplies are. They broke all the interior doors of the hospital, as well as every exterior door.

    He was then interrogated about resistance fighters, he said. The Americans threatened to do here what they did in Fallujah if I didn't cooperate with them, he said.

    Another doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that all of the doors of the clinics inside the hospital were kicked in. All of the doctors, along with the security guard were handcuffed and interrogated for several hours, he said.

    The two doctors pointed to an ambulance with a shattered back window. When the Americans raided our hospital again last Tuesday at 7pm, they smashed one of our ambulances, the first doctor said.

    His colleague pointed to other bullet-riddled ambulances. The Americans have snipers all along the road between here and Fallujah, he said. They are shooting our ambulances if they try to go to Fallujah.

    In nearby Saqlawiyah, Dr Abdulla Aziz told Inter Press Service (IPS) that occupation forces had blocked any medical supplies from entering or leaving the city. They won't let any of our ambulances go to help Fallujah, he said. We are out of supplies and they won't let anyone bring us more.

    The pattern of military interference in medical work has apparently persisted for many months. During the April siege of Fallujah, doctors there reported similar difficulties.

    The marines have said they didn't close the hospital, but essentially they did, said Dr. Abdul Jabbar, orthopedic surgeon at Fallujah General Hospital. They closed the bridge which connects us to the city, and closed our road. The area in front of our hospital was full of their soldiers and vehicles.

    This prevented medical care reaching countless patients in desperate need, he said. Who knows how many of them died that we could have saved.

    He too said the military had fired on civilian ambulances. They had also fired at the clinic he had been working in since April, he said. Some days we couldn't leave, or even go near the door because of the snipers. They were shooting at the front door of the clinic.

    Dr. Jabbar said U.S. snipers shot and killed one of the ambulance drivers of the clinic where he worked during the fighting.

    We were tied up and beaten despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments, Asma Khamis al-Muhannadi, a doctor who was present during the U.S. and Iraqi National Guard raid on Fallujah General Hospital told reporters later.

    She said troops dragged patients from their beds and pushed them against the wall.. I was with a woman in labor, the umbilical cord had not yet been cut, she said. At that time, a U.S. soldier shouted at one of the (Iraqi) national guards to arrest me and tie my hands while I was helping the mother to deliver.

    Other doctors spoke of their experience of the raid. The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital, they prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and we quickly began to run out of supplies and much needed medication, said Dr. Ahmed, who gave only a first name. U.S. troops prevented doctors from entering the hospital on several occasions, he said.

    Targeting hospitals or ambulances is in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the impeding of medical operations during war.

    At several places doctors said U.S. troops had demanded information from medical staff about resistance fighters. They are always coming here and asking us if we have injured fighters, a doctor at a hospital said.

    A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad told IPS that routine searches of hospitals are carried out to look for insurgents. He said it has never been the policy of coalition forces to impede medical services in Iraq.