Saw another installment of Bochco' telvevision series
Over There . Difficult to watch. It dealt with the aftermath of soldier's traumatic amputation by an IED, and the impossible decisions soldiers are forced to make everyday in Iraq. Sitting comfortably over here, it is impossible -- not matter how hard we might try -- to appreciate what it is like to be over there. But, Bochco does a good job of closing the gap.
Then I read this by Bob Herbert:
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.
More below
Specialist Gonzalez was wounded in an attack that erupted in the 1 a.m. darkness of the first day of summer in 2004. He was on patrol in a "bucket," a Humvee that was open in the back like a utility truck, and not armored. Everybody understood that the vehicle was dangerously vulnerable to improvised explosive devices, so a system was devised to rotate the troops who rode in it. It's fair to think of this as a roadside version of Russian roulette.
.....
I interviewed Specialist Gonzalez on Tuesday in the quiet, air-conditioned offices of Disabled American Veterans, which is helping to prepare him for the transition to civilian life. He sat rigidly on the edge of a sofa, his left hand clinging to the knee of his wife, Any, who is 27. They were married last February.
"She has to be my eyes now," he said.
I asked Specialist Gonzalez if he had ever become depressed during his ordeal. "Yes, I did, sir," he said. "Actually, I've been getting more depressed lately than in the beginning."
....
His ability to concentrate has deteriorated, he said. "I have to accept it. My room is like a whole map where I keep big chart boards to remind myself which day I went to the gym, which bills I have to pay, so I don't pay them again."
While we can avert our eyes and turn our attention elsewhere, there is no elsewhere for Specialist Gonzalez and thousands like him. Iraq is part of their lives forever.
I don't know whether the president was too stupid to foresee the number of lives this war would ruin or whether he just didn't care. Either way, George Bush is leaving on vacation. Specialist Gonzalez is out of sight, out of mind.