CounterPunch: Maimed for Oil and Empire

http://www.counterpunch.org/colson10142004.html

Maimed for Oil and Empire

By NICOLE COLSON

"I THINK it's worth it, Jim." During the September 30 presidential debate,
George Bush didn't hesitate when asked if the war on Iraq was worth the hundreds
of deaths and thousands of terrible injuries suffered by U.S. troops.

Too bad debate moderator Jim Lehrer couldn't ask Sgt. 1st Class Larry Daniels
the same question. Daniels is one of hundreds of U.S. troops with critical
injuries at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the U.S. military hospital in
Germany where nearly all ill or wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan are sent.

In mid-September, Daniels and his men were guarding Iraqi contractors repairing
a chain-link fence near the Baghdad airport when a car bomb exploded. Today, his
arms are pinned with metal rods and wrapped in bandages from just below the
shoulders to the tip of his fingers. Shrapnel wounds scar his back, from behind
his right ear to his ankles. And Daniels is one of the "lucky ones"--because
doctors believe he'll make a full recovery and won't suffer disabilities.

Col. Earl Hecker, a critical care doctor at Landstuhl, says that the casualty
situation for U.S. troops is far worse than most people in the U.S. can imagine.
"[The public has] no idea what's going on here, none whatsoever," he told New
York Newsday. Then he blurted out, "Bush is an idiot."

Hecker has every right to feel angry. On an average day, he sees 35 young men
and women transported to Landstuhl, mainly from Iraq. Doctors and nurses at the