New Quaker Notebook

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace." - John Lennon

The great misery caused by the war in Iraq will not cease when "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."¹ The misery is just beginning. Americans are so busy moving forward that we have no time, patience, or capacity for remembering what the past was like—or, if we do remember, we think they are just two things, now and then, without the resemblance. Today the Washington Post issued a piece on Walter Reed Hospital and its struggle to care for the misery of the severely wounded Iraq veterans. Here's an excerpt:

The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely—a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them—the majority soldiers, with some Marines—have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty.

They suffer from brain injuries, severed arms and legs, organ and back damage, and various degrees of post-traumatic stress. Their legions have grown so exponentially—they outnumber hospital patients at Walter Reed 17 to 1—that they take up every available bed on post and spill into dozens of nearby hotels and apartments leased by the Army. The average stay is 10 months, but some have been stuck there for as long as two years.

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I remember Vietnam and similar complaints about the care our returning soldiers received. This is going to be much worse, I think, and more so because the US will be unable to pay for their care when this war is stopped.²

1. "President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended," US State Department, May 1, 2003.
2. Ruth Flower, budget analyst at Friends Committee on National Legislation, has calculated the US budget numbers to determine where our 2006 federal income tax dollars are going. She says: 41% of Your Tax Dollars Go To War. We forget, too, that the president just sent Congress a 2008 proposed federal budget that uses up a trillion dollars on current military activities and past wars. That's a $100 billion more than what was allocated for this year.

Iraqnam Redux