Bush Sucks!

Only phony soldiers get PTSD.

I would look askance at how truly helpful "veterans advocate" Paul Rieckhoff actually is. While it is laudable that Rieckhoff is trying to rightfully obtain benefits for veterans, it should not be overlooked that he is more interested in treating the symptom rather than the cause of their plight. Veterans will continue to fill the hospital beds of places like Walter Reed and the VA as long as the U.S. continues to stupidly remain in Iraq. Yet Rieckhoff, who will go to great lengths to criticize the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, is adamantly opposed to the immediate withdrawal of those troops from that quagmire in Iraq, thus ensuring that more military personnel will return to this country in coffins and even more of them will return to the good old USA maimed and crippled, disfigured and dismembered, severely burned , blinded, brain damaged, paralyzed, and suffering from the effects of PTSD. But then one supposes that Rieckhoff's attitude is not that surprising, since he has also seen fit to rip apart Lt. Watada, who has had the courage and common sense to say that he will not take part in the military occupation of Iraq. Paul Rieckhoff should hardly be considered a great friend of those who are getting slaughtered and grievously wounded in Iraq for absolutely no justifiable reason whatsoever.

Phoneys!!

PTSD is going to be huge in the coming years. Veteran's Hospitals are already full of Vietnam Era PTSD soldiers 30+ years later. Why exactly do Republicans not understand horror?

Thanks for highlighting this.

Here's a Youtube link called "PTSD Tapping For The Troops": a sort of acupressure technique that is said to help. It's easy to do and won't hurt to try.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRXdQNA3aEk

“shell shock” or “combat/battle fatigue” now earn a clinical diagnosis: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But the relatively new medical label doesn’t guarantee soldiers will get the care they need.

Bullshit! That disorder and diagnosis is at least 20 years old. When my Vietnam vet exhusband and I were doing the rounds of DAV, private, Kaiser and church mental care back in the early and mid 80s that's what his diagnosis was!!!

What he and I and our kids went through IS the very reason I've been warning about this for oh 3-4 years, espeically with long diployments and little time home.

Chris @ 14:

I would like to share a story that makes me feel proud as a Vet and Civil Servant. At Ft. Sam Houston, a group of strangers came together to soliciate donations for returning soliders with injuries and illnesses. This group donated more than money, they donated their design and engineering firm and worked with a talented staff at the Ft. Sam Houston DPW to design the new Wounded Warriors Home. The Wounded Warriors Home is not only for the soliders, but for their families also. At FSH, the families are brought to come and stay with their loved one while they are going through some of the toughest times of their life and at no expense. You can find out more by going to www.returningheroeshome.org and donating whatever you can. I am proud to have taken part in the design with such a great team of individuals that just wanted to give these men and women a place to call "home".

Chris,
Thanks for the strory and if you are part of that group, thank you for your efforts. There is a special place in heavan for people who do things like this. I like to think that they are rewarded by being able to watch hell on cable. I imagine after bush and cheney take their dirt nap, that would be a channel worth Tivo-ing.

On the TENTH ANNIVERSARY after the "fall of Saigon" I got to work on a TV documentary which interviewed Viet Nam Vets about the long-term psychological effects of their traumatic experiences in the jungles of Southeast Asia. I stood in a commons room in a small VA center in Fairbanks, Alaska, and shot video during a group support session for about 12 guys who had seen some very tough jungle combat... and STILL dealt with it EVERY DAY, like those things had happened LAST NIGHT... TEN YEARS AFTER THE FACT.

The VA counselors at the time knew all about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder... and talked THEN like it was a new diagnosis for the same old DEMONS: Battle Fatigue (WWII) and Shell Shock (WWI.)

Shooting those interviews, and sumsequent interviews with VA counselors, and other combat veterans, had TWO life-long lessons for me:

1. This experience for me created a deep and abiding respect for combat veterans. I am a US Army Vet, but never saw combat.

2. It also convinced me that there is NO GOOD PURPOSE FOR WAR THAT IS NOT NECESSARY. On this count, Bush is right: there are long and deep parallels between The Viet Nam conflict... and his OCCUPATION OF IRAQ. Bush's problem is that these parallels run perpendicular to his lines of logic.

PS. The documentary was titled "Ten Years After..." produced by Chuck Berray and Terrence O'Malley at KTTU, Channel Two, in Fairbanks, Alaska... in about 1984.