Sunday, June 17, 2007

Supporting our troops - the reality

In a 6/16/07 article, "Mental health system ill equipped for PTSD," the Washington Post documents the unsupportive, unresponsive, mismanaged "system" in place for helping returning veterans deal with post raumatic stress syndrome. This is not the first article -- nor will it be the last -- on the failure of the military establishment in general and the VA mental health system in particular to provide appropriate services to our returning troops when they suffer the disabilities caused by their participation in the wars in the Middle East.

This situation is a disgrace and one whose irony, I would hope, would penetrate the thick skulls of the "support our troops" crowd. Those are the folks who think George Bush (whose own military record is spotty at best) is a patriot and a war hero because he started the war in Iraq. These are the people who have kidded themselves that the war in Iraq is justified and even successful, while the preponderance of evidence is that it is neither. These are the people who have villified those calling for an end to the war. These are people who cloak themselves in the flag and the Constitution, while failing to exercise the most basic responsibility of a citizen -- the responsibility to think and to question. These are the people who have enabled one of the most corrupt and immoral US public enterprises in my lifetime.

Every time I see one of their cars with a yellow ribbon on it, I want to vomit.

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