the price

Bob Herbert writes about the price one man has paid for Bush's lies.

Specialist Fourth Class Hugo Luis Gonzalez knows that he will never be the same. He can barely see now. The sight in his right eye is completely gone, and he sees only faintly with the left. The damage from the head wound he suffered plays games with his moods, and there are glitches in the tape of his memory.

"We got ambushed," he said softly. "I have to say I was very, very, very blessed that night. The angel of death put his cloud over my body. But I am alive."

Specialist Gonzalez is one of many thousands of American troops who have suffered disabling wounds in Iraq. Their harrowing ordeals do not get much attention. For most Americans, these troops - many of them armless or legless, or paralyzed, or horribly burned - are out of sight and way out of mind. Jennifer Aniston's marital woes are viewed as a much more compelling story. [Column here.]

Is it true the MSM is blathering about war fatigue, as in, we're sick of thinking about this war? This is obscene. Celebrity marriage fatigue, yes. Pretty white women in distress fatigue is way overdue. But the war? For most Americans, the war is out of sight and out of mind. (Sorry, magnetic stickers on SUVs do not count.) I saw the CNN story in the Bob Herbert column I linked to above. I stick my nose in MSM for a moment, and the stench reeks for days. How dare they.

One antidote to this supposed fatigue might be something I found at our friend The Curmudgeonly Crab. Crabbi links to An Open Letter From Harvey Tharp, Former Lieutenant (Resigned), US Navy, found on After Downing Street.