By Prensa Latina,
Washington : The US Department of Defense has sent sick soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan, despite medical reports suggesting that they must be discharged from active service, USA Today reported on Monday.
The source presented the case of Infantry Sergeant Kevin Dunne, who was sent to Iraq for the third time, shortly after being diagnosed with severe hearing problems.
Before the new mission, the chief doctor at the Fort Hood base, in Texas, found so much damage in Dunne’s ears that he suggested that he must be discharged. However, his opinion was ignored by top military commands, the newspaper says.
Dunne’s hearing was affected in war theaters in Iraq, where bombs exploded one after the other, USA Today adds.
I’m responsible for what happened, I could give the pertinent orders because I could barely hear the shots, the sergeant said, after an ambush that resulted in one soldier killed.
The Pentagon admitted in a recent report that 43,000 soldiers have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003, although they are medically disqualified to fight.
The most frequent health problems affecting US troops are posttraumatic stress, which is suffered by 20 percent of war veterans, and locomotive disabilities.
The United States has deployed 185,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as part of Washington’s so-called crusade against terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.