The Missing Backbone

The title of this posting has meaning on several levels. Mainly, it concerns one of the newest scandals coming out of the US Military. Namely, that seriously injured military personnel are being re-deployed to the battlefield or are being reviewed for the same.

We recently had the opportunity to watch an interview with a certain Sergeant J*****s on MSNBC the other night. Sgt. J has had to undergo military medical reviews so that he may get a decision not to be re-deployed to the battle. Just what is Sgt. J's injury? He is missing four vertebrae, his C3 through his C6 vertebrae have been replaced with a titanium backbone, joints and discs.

Although Sgt. J may have been very heroic in covering any pain, he (apparently) will not be shipped back and his medical discharge should take place in 70 days. At which point he said his military career will be "done". Sgt. J seemed genuinely sad that his military career is over, but relieved that he will not be sent back into battle. We agree with him. If any of us were missing major parts (like vertebrae), we're just not sure we could be combat-ready.

This leads to other definitions of backbone. What kind of backbone does our military and government have to even consider sending personnel with that kind of injury back to the zone? Is the victory that important? Nearing the end of WWII, Germany was drafting its children and senior citizens into the army for a failed campaign. As we all know, fortunately, their side lost.

The message is quite clear. The US government's Iraq campaign is a failure and should be declared as such lest any more damage be done to our military, our credibility, our power and our treasure. It seems clear that this an ideological campaign now, and no longer a military campaign. As Zbigniew Brzezinski recently said, our leadership may be suffering from "Manichean Paranoia".