When I was in about fourth grade or so, I read a book called “Johnny Got His Gun,” by Dalton Trumbo (who was one of the Hollywood Ten who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, eventually being convicted of contempt of Congress – unlike, say, Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, et al. – spending 11 months in prison, and blacklisted by Hollywood). The book was about a soldier in WWI who has his face blown off by an artillery shell, is deaf, blind, unable to speak, and gradually loses all his limbs to amputation. His attempts to communicate with the outside world (banging his head up and down in Morse code) are taken to be fits, and “treated” with morphine, which induces visions of Jesus Christ, among other things. Yeah, the fact that I read this kind of stuff when I was seven or eight goes a long way in explaining why I turned out a little on the twisted side.

Anyway, I was reminded of this book when I read about 24-yr old Joseph Briseno Jr, who was shot in the back of the head in Baghdad four years ago, shattering his spinal cord, and leaving him blind, brain damaged, and paralyzed from the neck down. He is considered by some to be the “most severely wounded” soldier in Bush’s war.

He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.
[…]
He was 20, attending George Mason University, when he was called up from the reserves and sent to war.

I’m sure that turning a smart, strong, young kid into a blind quadriplegic who has had untold surgeries, bladder problems, high blood pressure, a breathing tube, dead tissue on his tongue, and osteoporosis, who can “respond to questions by grunting or grimacing” is somehow worth everything we’ve “gained” in Iraq. At least to people like Joe Lieberman, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and all the other chickenhawks who have never lifted a finger to serve this country, and who will never have to visit their kid in some cockroach infested army hospital.

It sure doesn’t seem worth it to me, though.