BAGHDAD — For two years now, Pfc. Qusay Aziz has risen each morning in the dank confines of a metal shipping container, rolled off a stained,
torn mattress, put on his right leg and reported for duty.
Stripes.com
This article is about Iraqi soldiers, wounded vets, being treated very poorly. I thought that U.S. vets were among some of the worst treated in the
world, but I suppose Iraq is working on taking that proud distinction from America.
He and three other severely injured Iraqi army soldiers live in the container on the edge of an Iraqi National Police base in Baghdad’s Khadamiyah
district and, like many of their wounded comrades, struggle to pay medical bills and have been repeatedly refused retirement by the Iraqi
government.
“I feel very bad, very angry,” said Aziz, 31, whose leg was ripped off by a roadside bomb in 2004. “The people who are now in government are
there because of the army and what the soldiers sacrificed.”
Meanwhile, Aziz and his three container mates, with injuries ranging from a missing arm to multiple shrapnel wounds, work one week on, one week
off. Their only toilet is an empty, overgrown lot; there is no shower and no running water. During summer, the heat seeps past the dingy rugs and
metal sheet covering the container’s open entrance, a faulty air conditioner offering little relief; a damp chill takes hold during the winter.
During the rainy season, the roof leaks.
Pfc. Yahia Abud’s heel and ankle are an amorphous, scarred mess, the result of a mortar blast that ripped apart his foot in 2004. He wears a walking
cast and hobbles around using a metal crutch. He says on his salary, he can’t take care of his wife and three children and pay for the regular
doctor visits and painkillers his injuries require.
“Each month I borrow money from my friends,” said Abud, 31.
Another container resident, Sgt. Hadi Ramadan, was riddled with shrapnel from a mortar in 2004. He has repeatedly put in for retirement and repeatedly
been denied. Ramadan, who supports a wife and eight children, is not optimistic his lot will improve any time soon.
“We know for a fact that the Iraqi government will not take care of us,” he said.
Unable to go on patrol anymore, the soldiers are officially there to guard a weapons cache, but their days are spent in boredom, smoking cigarettes
and worrying about families they now struggle to support.
I was all set to be really indignant and argumentative about the conditions these guys have to endure. I'm afraid it just makes me too sad. I imagine
maybe it's supposed to do just that and I shouldn't feel sorry for them. I guess I should feel anger at Iraq. Hell if I know.
The guys have to live in a shipping container and crap in a field. That just sucks.
