VIDEO OF THOMAS YOUNG DESCRIBING INJURIES SUSTAINED IN IRAQ

Tomas Young was 22 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Two days later, after watching President Bush speak to the country from the ruins of the Twin Towers, he decided to enlist in the Army.
He expected to go Afghanistan. He went to Iraq instead. On April 4, 2004 - five days after arriving - he was on a mission in an overcrowded, unprotected truck when he was shot by a sniper. His spine was severed and he was left paralyzed from the chest down.

"Body of War"

By Camilla A. Herrera Greenwich Time

Documentary spotlights the human cost of Iraq conflict.

See video here: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040808A.shtml

"For the Iraqis on the top of the roof, it just looked like ... ducks in a barrel," says Young in "Body of War," a documentary by former talk-show host Phil Donahue and documentary filmmaker Ellen Spiro.
"They didn't have to aim."
"Body of War," which premiered Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and opens at the IFC Center in Manhattan this Wednesday, features Young as he copes with paralysis and treatment, deals with depression and juggles his medication and care. We see his marriage struggle and his brother go to Iraq. This all happens while he develops a growing opposition to the war - set against music by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
During a meeting Tuesday, before Young and Donahue flew to Washington for the premiere, the veteran explains he was recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., when he began suspecting the reasons given for war. He wondered where the connections between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein existed and questioned the continued military presence in Iraq after weapons of mass destruction had not been found.
These were questions Donahue says he also had considered while the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 was debated in Congress before the invasion five years ago. He thought of them again after meeting Young at Walter Reed. The vote authorizing war, he says, "is what put Tomas in a wheelchair."
Donahue, who lives in Westport, says he approached Young about filming his story. He told Young his story paints an honest picture of war and others need to see it. Young agreed, and soon Spiro and her cameras were capturing every aspect of Young's life as an injured veteran.
"I saw an opportunity to get the message out," he says. "When people join (the military), they join with the knowledge that they may come home in a body bag. Many don't think they'll come home in a wheelchair. Certainly no man thinks he will come home to find he cannot satisfy his wife or girlfriend.
"They don't hear these stories. No one tells you about the consequences."

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