The US was so unprepared for this voluntary, unnecessary war, it is morally reprehensible. The entire war was based on the premise of establishing a US colony in Iraq, with the consequence of controlling the oil of the second largest oil producer in the world.
The cost to our son's and daughters, to our economy, and to our children's children in terms of debt and increased terrorism is incalculable. Nothing short of a dramatic redirection of this country as called for by Zbigniew Brzezinski has any hope of retrieving any credibility and effectiveness for US foreign policy.
AlterNet
Like most National Guard soldiers, my husband didn't receive a comprehensive mental health evaluation until eight months after he returned from a yearlong tour at the most-attacked base in Iraq. Nearly a year after his exam, in August of 2006, he was notified of the outcome: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides free healthcare services to veterans for a period of two years beginning on the date of their separation from active military service. By the time my husband was informed of his diagnosis and advised to get treatment, he had approximately six months remaining to access care. But the waiting list is long, and time is running out for him and for tens of thousands just like him.
The clock has already stopped for hundreds of National Guard soldiers and Army reservists who returned from Iraq suffering from PTSD that was either undiagnosed by the military, or the VA refused/delayed treatment. Pentagon statistics reveal that the suicide rate for U.S. troops who have served in Iraq is double what it was in peacetime.
Soldiers who have served -- or are serving -- in Iraq are killing themselves at higher percentages than in any other war where such figures have been tracked. According to a report recently released by the Defense Manpower Data Center, suicide accounted for over 25 percent of all noncombat Army deaths in Iraq in 2006. One of the reasons for "the higher suicide rate in Iraq [is] the higher percentage of reserve troops," said military analyst James F. Dunnigan.
Despite the high risk factor, many soldiers who seek treatment are not receiving urgent care. "When he went to the VA, they didn't have room to treat him that day," said the mother of Jason Cooper, an Army reservist in the Iraq war. Jason hung himself four months after coming back to Iowa. He was 23, a year older than Army reservist Josh Omvig and Marine reservist Jeffrey Lucey, who also committed suicide after the VA's failure to care. As did National Guardsmen Doug Barber, Tim Bowman, Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Jerome Sloss, and far too many others who have ended their lives rather than live them with the psychological equivalent of a sucking chest wound.
[..]The Department of Defense has known this for at least a decade. They commissioned the Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program, which conducted post-deployment studies of Gulf War veterans. Rates of PTSD and attendant mental health issues were found in approximately 20 percent of regular enlisted, but upwards of 90 percent of reservists who fought in the first Gulf War reported one or more PTSD-specific symptoms six months [post-deployment].
[..]"We have heard so much about what this military has learned in Vietnam [about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder], and how they're doing it differently now. We don't see that at all," said Nancy Lessin of Military Families Speak Out. For us, as we care for our wounded by ourselves, struggle alone with the phantoms of war, and watch our families fall apart, it is already far too late to "get it right this time."MORE
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