I didn't realize how many troops are coming home in a coma...

[karlrschneider]

Or so brain damaged they can't function. :grr: :cry:


http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-24-army-living-wills_x.htm?csp=34

[babylonsister]

1. This is so sad, and you know they won't get the care and

funding from the gov't that they've earned and deserve.:cry:

[lonestarnot]

2. karlrschneider! Where have you been?

[karlrschneider]

3. Oh, here and there...Tampa, Kansas City, Dallas

wherever they send me. :D

[lonestarnot]

5. Cool bud! Keep fighting!

:hug:

[ComerPerro]

19. you were in KC and I wasn't informed?

[karlrschneider]

20. Sorry, I was there for about 15 minutes...just dropped off some

passengers and came home. :D

[ComerPerro]

21. well, I guess that's excusable.

Just don't let it happen again

[karlrschneider]

22. Yes, sir. Very good, sir.

:-)

[Lowell]

4. You don't hear about it because

once they get home and die they are not counted as casualties on either the Iraq or Afghan lists. Many have hung on for months only to secumb to their injuries later. This is just another way they manipulate the true numbers of our fallen soldiers.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Now that the war in Iraq is all but over

"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in
Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?"
(Fox News Channel's Alan Colmes, 4/25/03)

[babylonsister]

9. That quote - just wow! So much for his crystal ball. nt

[ThomCat]

7. Cut the VA some more, Republicans! The vets don't need

that care!
x(

[annabanana]

8. I guess B*sh misspoke again.

The Iraq war will be remembered as a coma, not comma.

My heart goes out to these kids and their families.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. It's the dirty little secret...

that doesn't get much airplay.

I read an article in the Guardian around a year after the start of the invasion that talked about the large number of vets returning with massive brain injuries that left them either in a coma or, even worse, would leave them terribly disabled for the rest of their lives. One doctor said that, for many of them, the maximum "recovery" would them being able to lift a fork to feed themselves.

It seems the IEDS would send metal bolts and other objects through the soldiers' helmets causing injuries that would have killed them on other wars.

This story just kills me -- many of them are all but dead, and they will never appear on the "killed" casualty lists

I wonder what the true numbers are???

[JohnnyRingo]

11. I understand that it's because of improved body armor

Impact trauma that would have resulted in instant death in previous wars leaves soldiers of this war with damage only to the extremities because the vest protects the vital organs. Besides loss of limbs, I guess the head counts as such.

A sad cost of Buxh's needless war.

[karlrschneider]

13. More unintended consequences...thus the discussion of living wills.

...

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. I'm sorry, did you say "coma" or "comma"? nt

[Bozita]

14. Perfect! Bush is in a coma. Troops are just a comma in history.

What an intersection!

[TheModernTerrorist]

15. sadly

it looks like there's gonna be more job openings in my field, dealing with traumatic brain injuries and mental disabilities :-(

[Geoff R. Casavant]

16. I compared the casualty rate to Vietnam

If you go by deaths alone, well, we have fewer people dying in Iraq per unit time than were dying in Vietnam.

However, if you count both deaths and wounds (at least according to the numbers on Wikipedia), IIRC our soldiers and Marines are experiencing casualties at a higher rate than Vietnam.

Thirty years of improvement in battlefield medicine means we have the same number of injuries, but less of them are fatal.

[Catherine Vincent]

17. Karl Rove was probably very upset Bush made that comment.

Somebody didn't do their job of schooling him that day.

[undergroundpanther]

18. Coma?

As in Brain Dead?

For all you folks that thought it was ok for the STATE to say it was OK for Terri Shiavo to be killed,(futility of life laws etc.)remember what you supported than and where it leads us NOW..
It's sad but if you get to know some homeless people chances are a few of your new friends will be vets from previous wars.Vets who have PSTD,and addictions and cannot cope with what they saw or did. These vets are INJURED in the soul,traumatized. Traumatized for a reich man's greed and thrown away by the very snotball shallow me first society he was told he was fighting for. Every generation gets duped by guts and glory but never figures out to ask WHO really BENEFITS from that war shit,really before they sign up?.

Bush and the rich in this country have always HATED the poor and the 'weak'.Because our country right now is being run by covert Nazis.They BELIEVE in Eugenics,Might makes right etc. they are psychopath bullies who think they are god men and have a divine right to rule and dispose of our lives as THEY wish..Now they want to drown the part government that provides services to POOR people,disabled,veterans,mentally handicapped,or injured ,IMPERFECT people, basically they want to "the weak"from the'herd' And generate ETERNAL WAR..=,in other words that neocon imperative to shrink,dismantle and drown the social safety net in a bathtub is a NAZI idea a roundabout way of saying lets cull the weak. Every hospital can become a gas chamber now.Perfect disguise ya think? Hidden in plain sight,Perfect plan in Satanic Principles as taught by Anton LaVey...
You cannot cut off weak people's lives with too many weakness sympathizers around,like loved ones who don't want their veteran comatose kids to be yanked off life support for some hospital companies 'shareholders profits are looking less than decadent..

Back when Terri was took off life support by court order of the STATE, It basically gave big MONEY and the STATE the right to MURDER people.I saw this tragedy coming. Before Terri's big hoo hahh..already I had heard reports of how the new armor was causing more brain injuries in soldiers, coming home..More than previous armor versions did,and it really bothered me when Terri's case came up,and Dem's were crying for her "right to die" Too damn hung up on opposing ANYTHING the fundies supported,they played RIGHT INTO the Neocon Plans,Dumb asses indeed hung up by blind support of certain freedom sounding ideologies again..

I warned you all.But, noooo nope nobody listened,they called me everything from a fundie to a neocon sympathizer,on DU.. But On disability forum they well understood me and what I saw coming ,but than again disabled folks know what kind of bullshit 'the caring profession'pulls when you are not"normal" or pretty"healthy" bodied. "Care" is but a mask for CONTROL.I knew alot more Iraq vets probably would be coming home with brain damage,and I saw greedy ass corporations whining about We can't PAY for these pEoPle to remain on life support forever,I saw Tort reform..I saw the death camps come in the form of"care"..but nobody else thought about that. The Neocons thought lets get people into hysterics,rile up the fundies so the Dem's will oppose them, and the STATE passed a LAW in the name of "humanitarian compassion" for Terri's plight..that lets the rich thug, KILL disabled or comatose people rather than be stuck losing profits over trying to help them than.

It is and was always will be for these Nazi types,.KIll KIll KIll the poor kill the "weak"..

Less "weak people around to shame the greedy, less the rich have to pretend they care or justify their greed ..and put on a show so people will do what they want them to do,like work their lives away for peanuts feeding their soul to the company store..

[Binka]

23. Terri Shiavo Equates To Vets Being Maimed In Iraq? Oh Fuck Off.

As the mother of a horribly injured Iraqi war vet and yes I saw many kids with brain injuries in Bethesda I say get the fuck over yourself. The Shiavo case has NOTHING to do with the inhumane treatment of US soldiers. NOTHING. What a crock of shit that you would compare these two things.

You sound sincere but hopelessly ignorant. Please do not talk about a brain damaged bulimic and US soldiers being blown to shit in W's happy clappy US intervention in Iraq in the same breath.

Get a clue.

[nolabels]

24. It has a lot to do with republicans

If you are rich and hospitalized there is hope but if your poor and need of life supporting remedies there is little hope. Playing politics with peoples lives is what republicans do

[undergroundpanther]

25. Yep

And if you(previous poster telling me to fuck off ) fail to see that,and fail to see republicans manipulate politics,laws and public emotions for the sake of power itself,you are blind.

[undergroundpanther]

27. THINK Bink.

I brought up Shiavo here for a reason,her case changed the law of this country. Her case allowed a BAD precedent. The state can now decide whom is "too damaged" to be worthy of receiving life support now. I am sorry about the situation you are in but don't blind yourself.
That Shiavo case was not about her it was more about getting the laws changed. Bush has no respect for human dignity ,he would let everyone who does not bow to him die. Bush is a Nazi and all nazis hate the weak,the poor, the sick and hurt and would prefer them dead than costing the state money.. The health of the state(which is for the most few powerful in a Authoritarian state ) to a Nazi mentality,like the mentality this administration has is far more valuable to them than any individuals life is, especially a 'broken life'.A 'useless eater's life. Please RESEARCH this issue deeper. Look into Nazi History concerning disabilities.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/closeup/holocaust/faq.shtml
http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/NewsDisabled.htm

Look at the precedents the Shiavo case was about, which was can the state override and make an end of life decision that would be overriding the will of one family member over another? Do you want the state to have that kind of power?
http://erlenda.blogspot.com/2005/03/why-progressives-should-help-to-save_20.html
It has to do with ETHICS.
http://www.aish.com/SSI/articleToPrint.asp?PageURL=/societyWork/society/The_Death_of_Terri_Schiavo_An_Epilogue.xml
Shiavo's case sets a precedent, a dangerous one considering the situation with soldiers coming back from Iraq in comas.Look at the futility of life laws and how they can be exploited. One of our own on DU , her sister was killed in the name of cost effectiveness.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/undergroundpanther/11

Do you not see a problem here? One that could potentially HARM alot of people?
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/042406HoustonLife.html

[Generic Other]

26. "Catastrophic wounds mean lifetime care" Too costly so let 'em die?

Why do I get the feeling this is why they really care about this issue. The economic cost.

[undergroundpanther]

28. The health of the state

and a healthy state to a nazi means control in thier hands. Control over whos worthy of life and who is not.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/042406HoustonLife.html



See my post to Binka