Does This Surprise Us?

Pentagon: Ex-Gitmo Detainees Resume Terror Acts

Uh… no kidding? You take a man from his family, friends, and country; accuse him of terrible acts; give him no trial, no access to a fair legal system; (in some cases – torture him); then you release him. What do you think he is going to do? I mean, seriously, if this happened to me – even if I had never committed an act of terrorism in my life – I would certainly be considering committing such an act after being released. We, along with the Israelis, are creating terrorists. We cage these men for years, show them no human dignity whatsoever and then expect them to what? – just let it pass? – forget it ever happened? That’s ridiculous!! It’s insane. Many of us in the United States were asking after 9/11, “why do they hate us?” Now we should be asking, “why shouldn’t they hate us?”

Technorati Tags: detainees, Gitmo, 9/11, Pentagon, terrorism, torture

The Forgotten Soldiers

As we hear the daily news from Iraq, many of us pay attention to number of soldiers killed in a recent attack. However, most of us ignore the other number - the number of wounded. This war is creating an epidemic. As of this date, September 10, 2007, the Pentagon has reported 27,767 soldiers wounded in Iraq. However, some experts believe that this number is low because it may not include those soldiers who are sent back into the field after recovering from an injury. These experts have estimated the actual number of wounded to be anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000. Still, if we accept the Pentagon's official count, it is certainly not negligible. These are soldiers who need extended medical treatment and rehabilitation. Many are not able to hold jobs after returning to civilian life. According to a recent AP article, thousands of soldiers have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and 20% of them will suffer "prolonged or lifelong symptoms and need continuing care." The article focuses only on that one type of injury - TBI. There are thousands more who have lost vision, hearing, use of limbs, etc. also facing the same need for continuing care. Does Bush care? No. The funding under his administration and the former Republican controlled Congress allowed horrendous conditions to exist in our Veterans Hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Things are improving, but the deficit created by GWB and company is monstrous and will take decades to correct. Of course, that is assuming that Americans are intelligent enough not to put another war-mongering puppet into the White House. And that is a big assumption to make.