This is only going to uglier, please anybody who wants more information go to VA watchdog dot org. It is the ultimate site for news and help for all our returning Vets.
Most people don't understand the VA is not here to help, they force the Vets to find out the hard way. If someone needs a guiding hand this is the site. There are so many links and current news from this one site.
Like the news the VA is paying for land it once owned at 10,000% profit back to the developer. Crazy!
Steve, From the Veterans: Thanks for keeping this issue in the spotlight!! We need all the help we can get!
Posted by bbtb at February 28, 2006 08:01 PMThe only thing that surprises me is that the rates are so low. Look for them to increase inexorably as less obvious and longer-term problems, and perhaps greater willingness to acknowledge such, manifest themselves over time.
Would that the chickenhawks and their lickspittle macho-boy poodles might have a taste of such mental and spiritual hell.
Posted by KM at February 28, 2006 08:02 PMI think people don't understand that even relatively scarce and oblique exposure to violent death can mess with people's heads quite badly. One needn't be constantly surrounded by bloody chaos to suffer serious, long-term mental troubles.
Posted by dj moonbat at February 28, 2006 08:32 PMAnd very few realise how intensely traumatising it can be to kill another human being, "enemy" or no.
Posted by KM at February 28, 2006 08:40 PMBeing nothing more than tools by this Administration, don't look for any compassion in the future.
Posted by Judith at February 28, 2006 10:32 PMNearly every day I see veterans of Vietnam standing on corners with signs appealing for help. These are broken men, and have been for 30 years. Their destroyed lives are written on their faces.
We did not keep the faith with the Vietnam vets, and it appears that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld will lead the way in ignoring what is surely predictable: more broken men and women, abandoned by their government after giving their physical and mental health as military personnel of the US in southwest asia - Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever Bush sends them next.
I feel such shame at our executive government, our Congress, our media, and ourselves for treating our patriots like broken machines to be discarded back into society.
Posted by JimPortlandOR at February 28, 2006 11:37 PMI'll bet this topic was never even discussed in the run-up to the "war". Bushco does not support the troops, they just use them.
Posted by TIKI AL at March 1, 2006 06:41 AMBut with our economy in such great shape, what's the reason to ignore those who fight in these supposedly honorable wars? Yes, that's adressed to you, Muckdog, who advocates a lowass minimum wage as a good thing.
Posted by Sharon at March 1, 2006 07:12 AMCommunity mental health clinics, once an inexpensive alternative for people who sought treatment, have been wiped out by managed care. Every therapist I know works for an HMO where they are allowed see clients only once or twice before they are sent to the shrink to be medicated. I don't think there's any ethical, decent mental health care system left to treat these people. They'll offer them Prozac, I guess, and try to medicate their PTSD away.
Posted by chris at March 1, 2006 07:57 AM"Will the GOP Congress abandon its responsibilities to the Iraq War vets?"
Man, there's no doubt that's a rhetorical question, if ever I saw one!
What percent of the population thinks that Bushco will adequately fund services for traumatized combat veterans? 10%? Seriously, these soldiers can expect REDUCTIONS in services as part of their thanks from a grateful nation.
With enormous, irreversible deficits as far as the eye can see, the VA will maintain its pathetic position far, far down the priority line.
Our first priority is the creation of additional traumatized veterans, remember.
Posted by euzoius at March 1, 2006 08:08 AM
Post-war traumatic stress disorder is more par for the course than an exception. Two of my former flight-mates blew their brains out, and one hung himself. I think that pretty well summarizes the situation and the end results.
I have attempted suicide six times using various methods since 1992, but there seems to be a guardian angel that won’t let me pack it in. Damn shame. The only thing I lost were quite a few friends.
I suspect that the number will rise far above a third as they come home and find out (contrary to what they are apparently still being told) that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. I suspect that a large number of them may be holding it together based on the belief that they are doing something important and relevant to the needs of their country, and don't realize that the lie that they are clinging to has long been discredited.
--MarkusQ