Just a moment

My apologies in advance that this isn't a knitting post and it isn't light-hearted.

Since the television media no longer seems to give a damn (did they ever) about the men and women dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, I just wanted to point out some statistics of today:

2300 fatalities in Iraq, 274 in Afghanistan.

Not to mention 16,000 (yes that's thousand) + who are injured.

I'm not sure how many of you know this so I'm going to tell you. Casualty care has come a long way since Korea and Nam. Used to be that when you were a medic doing triage in the field, you just checked to see who was going to make it back to a MASH unit. Most of the guys with head injuries were considered already dead whether they were or not. And sometimes, amputations weren't really an option either, so those guys bled out.

But, now, they are able to do so many things in the field and near the field that our vet hospitals are going to be full of what Senator Inouye of Hawaii once called, "vegetables." And A WHOLE LOT of amputees. And he would know, he lost his arm in war. And he spends time at these hospitals. A place where cameras aren't going.

I guess it's too much for them to show us the guys and gals in the hospitals who have come back broken. I mean, they won't even show us the caskets with flags draped on them. Can't actually remind the public that our people are dying (don't get me started on the number of Iraqi civilians).

I mean really, didn't Barbara Bush say it best on GMA, "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it'’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"” Uh, yeah. I'm so much clearer on Jr. now.

So, I invite you to learn more. The Washington Post has done a project called Faces of the Fallen.

Just so you know, regarding my comments above about previous wars vs. now, I used to write for a Military Medical publication. So, I do know from what I speak. And Mr. Inouye made that comment to me.