Wounded

The intractable earth is getting warmer in spite of our President's excision of the phrase "global warming." And neither despicable "spin" nor legitimate political debate is altering the deaths and disfigurements of our soldiers in Iraq.

Ron Glasser's new book Wounded should be read by everyone. He was an army doctor in Vietnam - his 365 DAYS was the best novel to come out of that war - and he has been a dedicated, vociferous advocate of the serviceman and woman since. In Wounded he decries the purposeless, pointless, and seemingly endless war, and its cost in lives, in futures, and to our country's spirit and fortune.

The wounded are coming home in unprecedented numbers, maimed by antipersonnel bombs for which there is little defense. They are shunted out of the D.O.D. as soon as possible, and into the care of a Veteran's Administration, underfunded, and incapable of absorbing them. The book is a reasoned, concise statement of the problem by a physician, and the plea of an ex-serviceman for his young brothers and sisters in the military.

Please read it.