The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Raise a glass to the higher survival rates!

(If you have something to raise a glass with...)

This timely piece is something of the glass half empty side of the tale to the reports I was hearing touted yesterday concerning the drop to 10% mortality rate for wounded in Iraq as compared to the 30% for World War II and 24% for Vietnam. The key's been surgical care as close to the front lines as possible, which should make fans of M.A.S.H. feel strangely in tune with this.

While the military and administration's been generally reluctant to say much about the over 1400 military deaths they've been saying even less about the nearly 10,000 wounded. Lives have been saved because of prompt medical and surgical treatment, but the result's been a doubling of the amputation rate, and the word that's been leaking out for a while is that many of the wounds have been horrific. People will not be bouncing back from these. Aside from amputations, a full 20% of the wounded treated in Germany have had head and neck injuries, mostly caused by explosives.

"These injuries, surgeons said, have long-term implications, with many involving irreversible brain damage, breathing and eating impairments, blindness, or severe disfiguration. The study prompted the military to add a full-time head and neck surgeon to a Baghdad field hospital."

I continue to wonder what perspective these severe and lasting injuries will bring to the Iraqi war operations - to "the mission", whichever one one picks - in the coming years. While I hope that it will result in a telling re-examination of the motives for this war and a backlash against this administration, I worry that the deaths and disfigurements will be used to heap some twisted sense of honor on "the mission." I continue to worry that the blood of the fallen will be used in a pattern of circular reasoning to consecrate this needless war in Iraq.

(Thanks to Grant for emailing me a link. Blogger, once again, had system problems for a large chunk of Thursday, which kept me from posting anything until this morning.)