When the truth gets tough.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - American soldiers wounded in Iraq - Brief Article

An American doctor at the Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, where 16,000 wounded, injured, 'or sick soldiers from Iraq have arrived since the war began in March 2003, said this about the American public: "They have no idea what's going on here, none whatsoever." He was treating a 27-year old soldier who had been rushed to the intensive care unit.

"Plugged to a respirator, the soldier lies naked in the bed, his pelvic area covered in a towel. A roadside bomb 12 hours earlier left deep burns on 20 percent of his body, a punctured lung, and a broken leg. His chances of survival are roughly 50-50.

"His seared hands are sliced open to prevent the need...