Invisible Cost of War

McDaniel: The invisible costs of war
By Donna McDaniel
Friday, July 22, 2005

This column is about the costs of the Iraqi war-or any war-to peoples' lives, the costs we don't hear much about. Our attention goes, naturally, to the men and women who have died. Our hearts hurt for their kids, the grieving wives and husbands, moms and dads, sisters and brothers. We wonder how people can bear it-how we would bear it.

But this column is about those who we don't hear about-the wounded, physically and emotionally. I happened upon a program (CSpan?) of interviews with the patients at Walter Reed Hospital, lengthy and in-depth conversations both heart-breaking and inspiring. The people that I learned about there, and the thousands like them, have been on my mind ever since.

One fact says a lot about the wounds in Iraq. Rather than bullet wounds (bad enough), the damage to the soldiers is now from bombs-the horrendous blasts of roadside explosions or grenade launchers. Bombs mean the chances of surviving are smaller and those who do live are likely to lose a limb or two or more or, like an interviewee on another program, part of their face or chest.

There are maybe about 11,000 wounded, from one source. Another report has at least 24,000 service men and women being med-evac'ed so far.

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