Mind games

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Mi...ings_1024.html

In speaking with reporters, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the top psychiatry
expert for the Army's surgeon general, insisted that the Department of
Defense (DOD) still prioritized the mental health of service members
in the war's fourth year. "But she also acknowledged that some
practices, such as sending servicemembers diagnosed with
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) back into combat, had been
driven in part by troop shortage."

"The challenge for us is that the Army has a mission to fight. And as
you know, recruiting has been a challenge," she said. "And so we have
to weigh the needs of the Army, the needs of the mission, with the
soldiers' personal needs."

Or, as Cathleen Wiblemo, deputy director for health care for the
American Legion says, "The DOD is in the business of keeping people
deployable."

The other consequence for soldiers whose combat-related trauma goes
undiagnosed and untreated during their term of service was first made
known to me by Andrew (not his real name), a VA psychiatrist who spoke
on condition of anonymity for this article. First the soldier's
symptoms are ignored by military personnel; then the soldier
self-medicates; then the military tests the soldier for substances. If
the soldier tests positive, he or she is given a less-than-honorable
discharge and stripped benefits, often winding up on the street--still
addicted and traumatized.
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"Support the troops"
GWB

Humbug!