NOLA v. Iraq – Qui es Muy FUBAR?
My cousin Larry, the rapidly radicalizing Red State senior citizen, is reading Dahr Jamail now. He sends me this:
There is a reason why a relatively recent Army survey found that 54% of all soldiers in Iraq reported either “low” or “very low” morale.George Bush managed to fly back in the middle of the night to “save” Terri Schaivo, but he couldn’t be bothered to come off vacation for two days to deal with Katrina. You can bet he sure as shit isn’t going to care about the men and women coming back from Iraq who will just keep dying and dying for their country.
There is also a reason why, again according to the Army, that 30% of all soldiers returning from Iraq develop mental health problems 3-4 months after their return.
And there is a reason why soldiers like Nicolas Prubyla come home and join organizations like Iraq Veterans Against the War.
“Up until five days ago, I had large amounts of blood in my stool,” he told me recently, “I’ve felt tired all the time, I have had loss of hair…loss of the feeling in my right arm…I’m battling this stuff.”
What he is battling is exposure to uranium munitions in Iraq. He is battling radiation sickness as the result of the most recent nuclear war waged by the United States of America. There is a reason why over 11,000 veterans from the ’91 Gulf War are dead today, and over 250,000 others are on medical disability. That reason (hundreds and hundreds of tons of uranium munitions dropped on Iraq) is the same thing Prubyla is battling today.
“As the years go on this is going to effect a hell of a lot more people than we think…radioactive dust and the clouds of smoke and dust from firing the DU [depleted uranium] is getting to us now,” he said, “And I know I’m not the only person in my unit-my boss got diagnosed with cancer, one of my other buddies who is 23 years-old is getting rashes….every time I do more research on DU-I’m seeing that I have all the side effects.”
Prubyla has realized what more and more veterans understand…that the powers that be in our military plutocracy (also known as the US government) could care less for their well being. One of the shadow members of the current plutocracy who is also an exalted neo-conservative, Henry Kissinger, has referred to military men as “dumb, stupid animals to be used” as pawns for foreign policy.
Exactly how much more “compassionate conservatism” are we going to be able to handle?
(As a side note, it would just ice my fucking cake if Patrick Fitzgerald managed to snare that evil old prick Kissinger for rubber stamping all Conrad Black's crooked deals as a member of the Hollinger board. Say yer prayers.)
posted by Jane Hamsher @ 9/01/2005 03:11:00 PM
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