Baghdad ER Shows the Horrible Effects of the War

Tonight we returned from NJ and watched a tape of HBO's documentary called Baghdad ER. It was a graphic depiction of life in the MASH unit of this stupid war. Every day soldiers are medivac'ed in, almost all of them suffering the effects of IED's, the dreaded roadside bombs detonated by garage door openers or cellphones. The men and women who work in the hospital unit endure the suffering and watch as they have to amputate limbs, try to repair torn apart fingers, and see many of their patients die on the table.

The HBO crew had a full run of the place, and this unfettered access allowed the show to show the poignancy of a man who slips into death, and the tears of soldiers who learn that their comrades didn't make it. So far there have been more than 16,400 injuries and 2300 deaths in Iraq.

Watching this show made Cindy and I both think about the terrible costs in people and in dollars of this unwinnable war. This is the kind of program you wish that Rumsfield and Wolfowitz would see. These men didn't serve---but their war has killed and maimed so many thousands of better men and women already and it's not over yet.