Here come the chickens with PTSD.
The WaPo reports a new Army report says:
"[A]bout two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for destroying civilian property unnecessarily. 'Less than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect,' the Army report stated.
About 10 percent of the 1,767 troops in the official survey -- conducted in Iraq last fall -- reported that they had mistreated civilians in Iraq, such as kicking them or needlessly damaging their possessions."
This confirms the theory of US general -- whose name I can't recall at the moment -- who said about a third of the troops over there 'get it;' a third are clueless and the others just want to blow stuff up.
What worries me is how many of these guys didn't admit what they've been up to.
Another equally worrying finding:
"The study also found that the more often soldiers are deployed, the longer they are deployed each time; and the less time they spend at home, the more likely they are to suffer mental health problems such as combat trauma, anxiety and depression."
Something just tells me the Army and the VA are really low-balling the actual number of guys coming back with serious mental problems. The VA would rather not admit what the numbers really are because they're too busy giving themselves raises to be able to afford to care for the tens of thousands coming back with PTSD.
AP reports:
"Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans' health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.
The list of bonuses to senior career officials at the Veterans Affairs Department in 2006, obtained by The Associated Press, documents a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan."
The chickens are coming home to roost and it ain't goign to be pretty. When will someone be held accountable for this mess?
"[A]bout two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for destroying civilian property unnecessarily. 'Less than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect,' the Army report stated.
About 10 percent of the 1,767 troops in the official survey -- conducted in Iraq last fall -- reported that they had mistreated civilians in Iraq, such as kicking them or needlessly damaging their possessions."
This confirms the theory of US general -- whose name I can't recall at the moment -- who said about a third of the troops over there 'get it;' a third are clueless and the others just want to blow stuff up.
What worries me is how many of these guys didn't admit what they've been up to.
Another equally worrying finding:
"The study also found that the more often soldiers are deployed, the longer they are deployed each time; and the less time they spend at home, the more likely they are to suffer mental health problems such as combat trauma, anxiety and depression."
Something just tells me the Army and the VA are really low-balling the actual number of guys coming back with serious mental problems. The VA would rather not admit what the numbers really are because they're too busy giving themselves raises to be able to afford to care for the tens of thousands coming back with PTSD.
AP reports:
"Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans' health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.
The list of bonuses to senior career officials at the Veterans Affairs Department in 2006, obtained by The Associated Press, documents a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan."
The chickens are coming home to roost and it ain't goign to be pretty. When will someone be held accountable for this mess?
posted by William Duane at 1:57 PM
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