Cher ‘shocked’ on visit to maimed US troops

POP celebrity Cher has waded into the debate over the war on Iraq, saying that she was shocked by a recent visit to a hospital for wounded American troops.

Cher unexpectedly phoned a US radio talk show without saying who she was and condemned the way maimed soldiers were being hidden from the public.

She said that a recent visit she made to see injured soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington was "the most heinous thing I have ever seen".

Speaking on C-Span Cher, 57, said: "The thing that I was most shocked by as I was walking into the hospital, the first person I ran into was a boy that was about 19 or 20 years old who had lost both of his arms.

"Everyone had lost either one limb or two limbs. A couple of the boys told me it was because their vehicles the rockets pierce their vehicles so much it's like being in a kind of tin can.

"These boys had the most unbelievable courage, they felt it was their duty. And it took everything I have as a person to not, you know, break down," she said.

She asked why US President George W Bush and senior administration officials were not "taking pictures with all these guys".

"I don't understand why these guys are so hidden," she said.

The interviewer, still unaware he was talking to Cher, just after 7am yesterday, asked why she had been at the hospital.

Cher: "I'm an entertainer."

Interviewer: "What kind of entertaining?"

Cher: "I really don't want to go much past that. But ...

Interviewer: "Is this Cher?"

Cher: "Yeah."

A station spokeswoman said: "Cher came in like just another regular caller with something on her mind."