Injured Soldiers Being Sent Back to Iraq

If you work in an office and are injured, you get a letter from your doctorand go on a medical leave, if you have a physiological issue you go on medicalleave (those staplers hurt when they hit you), but if all your job entails iscarrying a hundred pound rucksack, boxes of ammunition, driving a Humvee or Tank, then you just go backto work.

Injured troops, many seriously are being sent back to Iraq, and it's not justa matter of the soldier saying "I don't feel well", the Doctors are determiningthey are not fit to go.

The Salon has been doing a great job atreporting on this issue, and continue to do so. In their latest story InjuredTroops Shipped Back into Battle.

April 9, 2007 | WASHINGTON -- On March 9, Army Spc. Thomas Smith was orderedto board a plane from Fort Benning, Ga., to deploy back to Iraq, even though hewas known to be suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder from aprevious tour there. Only weeks prior, military doctors determined that Smithshould not be allowed around weapons because of his PTSDsymptoms, which included bouts of sudden, extreme anger. Smith's medicalrecords, obtained by Salon, also show that doctors had "highlyrecommended" that Smith not be deployed because of his condition.

But that did not stop Smith's commanders from ordering him to Iraq as hisunit, the 3,900-strong 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, was rushing tomove out as part of President Bush's so-called surge plan for securing Baghdad.

"I was told to have my bags in at midnight that night," for theflight, Smith said. "I was sitting there looking at these letters in myhand from my doctors," he recalled in a telephone interview. In order tofollow the doctors' recommendations, Smith said, "I had to check myselfinto the hospital." He avoided the flight by just a few hours. Smith'scondition was serious enough that the doctors there kept him hospitalized fornearly two weeks.

The Salon's Previous Articles are here: "TheArmy is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq" and "Armydeployed seriously injured troops"

I'm not surehow or why this can happen, but it is very disturbing. It is common knowledgethat our military is "short handed" to say the least, but is thisadministration going to "fight to the finish"?