The Cost of War

From Bob Herbert, NYT:

Bobby Rosendahl, a 24-year-old Army corporal (and avid golfer) from Tacoma, Wash., was literally blown into the air last March 12 when an improvised explosive device detonated beneath his Stryker armored vehicle. He remembers landing on his back, with fuel spilling all around him and insurgents firing at him from the roof of a mosque.

Ms. Olson, during an interview in Washington, D.C., where Corporal Rosendahl is being treated at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, quietly cataloged her son's wounds:"

Both of his heels and ankles were crushed. He had a compound fracture of his femur in two places. Three-quarters of his kneecap was missing. His thigh was blown away. He had many, many open wounds, which all have closed except four right now."

She paused, sighed, then went on: "His left leg was amputated three weeks after he arrived here. He's not willing to give up his right leg. He's hoping to save it. All he wants to do is golf again. But we don't know. He's had 36 surgeries so far."

When you talk to close relatives of men and women who have been wounded in the war, it's impossible not to notice the strain that is always evident in their faces. Their immediate concern is with the wounded soldier or marine. But just behind that immediate concern, in most cases, is the frightening awarenessthat they have to try and rebuild a way of life that was also blown apart when their loved one was wounded.

More than 1,850 soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 13,000 have been wounded, some seriously enough that their lives will never be the same.

Those who died made the ultimate sacrifice. As for the living wounded, their sacrifice goes on, as they continue paying for a war that shouldn't have taken place.

Accolades and gratitude aren't enough.

It's time for those responsible for this unjustified war to be held accountable.

It is also time to get out of Iraq.

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