Monday, March 12, 2007

Report: Army ordering injured soldiers to Iraq


The U.S. Army is ordering soldiers at Fort Benning classified as "medically unfit to fight" to war in Iraq, Salon reports, asking aloud if it is an "isolated incident or a trend."

"As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq," writes Mark Benjamin for Salon, "a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records."

Benjamin cites recent cases of troops at Fort Benning whose medical profiles were "downgraded ... without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq."

In fact, writes Benjamin, some of the affected soldiers he interviewed "are already gone," with others set to fly to Iraq within a week. 3rd Infantry Division officials, according to Benjamin, deny the claims.

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5 comments:

Suzie-Q (S-Q) said...

They are being deployed without even a medical exam! That isn't right! What if they have a disease and they spread it amongst the troops? Then what? Who are the idiots responsible for this?

basheert said...

The reason they are being deployed WITHOUT a medical exam, is so that there is NO documentation they are injured.

I think there may be some lawsuit potential here. Just the fact that it's now all over the media, may save some lives in the future.

But no, our Army isn't broken (she said facetiously). God what are we doing to our poor troops?

Roisin Dubh said...

We have now entered The Twilight Zone folks.

How on earth can any military official justify sending unfit troops into a combat zone?

Suzie-Q (S-Q) said...

Basheert & Roisin Dubh:

This is insanity at it's best in our government!
Yes, indeed, it is the twilight zone now!

P.S. Roisin Dubh
Nice to see you here! ;)

basheert said...

I can tell you that the docs will have a tough time with this one.

It just smacks of a violation of the Hippocratic Oath - "first do no harm".

How sad -