U.S. troops’ Organ Donations save Europeans

[mbig]

The tragic but life-giving salvage of a War that now seems meaningless.
This, unlike Iraq, was the 'good war', that most of the Western World agreed with, and many supported with now mostly gone troops.
What are we still doing there is the question - winding down it seems.
No one has ever left Afghanistan with anything but regret.
Many Lives.... $2 billion a week, $100 Billion a year. A trillion.
It's [past] time to treat Afghanistan like other more active al-Qaeda havens of Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc.
Phone it in/Drone it in from nearby with perhaps additionally the occasionally special forces ground hit.

By Gregg Zoroya.
May 4 2012
U.S. troops' donated organs help save European lives - USATODAY.com

After Kelly Hugo flew to see her mortally wounded son at a U.S. Army hospital in Germany, where he had been rushed from Afghanistan, she didn't hesitate when asked about organ donation.

"I said, 'Oh, yes,'" the junior high school counselor recalls, memories still fresh of that December in 2010 when she last saw her son, Marine Cpl. Sean Osterman, 21, of Princeton, Minn., "because something good has to come out of something bad."

Since 2006, about 140 European lives have been saved because organs -- hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreases -- were harvested from 36 U.S. service members determined to be brain dead from wounds suffered in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to statistics from the German foundation that oversees organ removal and implantation.

The rate of organ donation from patients at Landstuhl is higher than other hospitals in Germany, according to data from the German foundation.
All casualties from combat funnel through the U.S. Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for care before being flown to the USA.
The window for removing, transporting and transplanting organs is narrow given the viability of organs, making it difficult for them to be used in the USA, says Insel Angus, a Landstuhl intensive care nurse involved in these cases.
[.......]
Hugo says her son was a big, generous man who wouldn't have flinched at the question of organ donation. "If you would have asked Sean at that point, he would have said, 'Hell, yes.'"

 

[Red_Dave]

The tragic but life-giving salvage of a War that now seems meaningless.
This, unlike Iraq, was the 'good war', that most of the Western World agreed with, and many supported with now mostly gone troops.
What are we still doing there is the question - winding down it seems.
No one has ever left Afghanistan with anything but regret.
Many Lives.... $2 billion a week, $100 Billion a year. A trillion.
It's [past] time to treat Afghanistan like other more active al-Qaeda havens of Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc.
Phone it in/Drone it in from nearby with perhaps additionally the occasionally special forces ground hit.

By Gregg Zoroya.
May 4 2012
U.S. troops' donated organs help save European lives - USATODAY.com

Reminds me to say "Hell Yeah" myself and get a new donor card. But the point here is that for all intents and purposes the Al Qaeda that existed prior to our invasion in 2001 no longer exists (not that its sister organisations in Yemen etc. dont matter). The people we are fighting now are what Tariq Ali refers to as the 'Neotaliban' . That is to say that the insurgency is made up of a combination of elements of the former regime and those who simply want to remove the government and the foreign forces that support it. For example if you watch the documentary below, it features an Afgan journalist who spends a few weeks in the mountains with insurgents. Whats most stuck me is an interview with one of the insurgents who said he joined the insurgency because the government stole his sheep.

What this highlights in the huge gulf between our interpretation of the conflict as being part of a global war on terror (even though only 5% of Afgans have heard of the 9/11 attacks) whereas the local people who join the insurgency see it as being about bread and butter issues and being left alone. All we are doing there is defending and a corrupt government that imprisions journalists and came to power as a result of electoral fraud.

al-Qaeda after Bin Laden - Part 1/3 - YouTube its worth waiting till the Robert Fisk interview at the end also.

 

[mbig]

Reminds me to say "Hell Yeah" myself and get a new donor card. But the point here is that for all intents and purposes the Al Qaeda that existed prior to our invasion in 2001 no longer exists (not that its sister organisations in Yemen etc. dont matter). The people we are fighting now are what Tariq Ali refers to as the 'Neotaliban' . That is to say that the insurgency is made up of a combination of elements of the former regime and those who simply want to remove the government and the foreign forces that support it. For example if you watch the documentary below, it features an Afgan journalist who spends a few weeks in the mountains with insurgents. Whats most stuck me is an interview with one of the insurgents who said he joined the insurgency because the government stole his sheep.

What this highlights in the huge gulf between our interpretation of the conflict as being part of a global war on terror (even though only 5% of Afgans have heard of the 9/11 attacks) whereas the local people who join the insurgency see it as being about bread and butter issues and being left alone. All we are doing there is defending and a corrupt government that imprisions journalists and came to power as a result of electoral fraud.

its worth waiting till the Robert Fisk interview at the end also.

Yes, thanks.
I regretted my choice of words soon after the post, thinking I would correct it on first reply.
"meaningless" was inaccurate/Very Very Poor.
Lots of good work has been done both militarily and humanitarianly. "Hell, Yes".
My Apology especially to those who may have served there or are in militaries in any other capacity.
Better would have been "futile of late" because despite our efforts, I don't think a coherent Afghanistan will hold and our dealings with a-q elswhere are far less costly. No one wants any more "Blackhawks Down" especially on a large scale.
I fear the Saudi financed madrassas in Pakistan still operate and will supply endless Jihadis across the border.
I'll pass on Fisk though.