PTSD in America, the world is watching

It is exceptionally interesting in a time when the President constantly reminds us we have to fear other nations, he fails to notice other nations are watching us. The reports of our military suffering from PTSD have been read around the world. The following is just one more indication this nation does not live in a bubble.

While the men and women in the military are suffering from battle wounds and receiving more heartache because the president does not listen, they are. Each nation with troops in combat face the same human result of that combat in the eyes of their own men and women serving. Each of them have terrible records on caring for their own veterans from England to Scotland, Canada and Australia, reports come out of the growing suffering.

We show that we are willing to wear out and wear down, as well as let down, the very people this nation counts on for its defense. We are no longer the leaders of the world when this government sits backs ignoring the problems the service men and women face. The world knows we send them back with PTSD just as the world knows we do not take care of those who have left the service. The only outcome of this kind of response to the wounded being destroyed is we allow it at our own peril. As we deny what any righteous nation would have addressed many years ago, our enemies wait until we have depleted all those serving today. The prospect of this nation being under-defended because we did not take care of them, is a joyous event to behold from people who do and did wish us destroyed. What have we become?

Are we, as citizens of this nation, planning on still sitting back waiting for someone else to fix the problem, care for the wounded, restore the military forces to levels equal to "the challenge" of a "global war on terror" and replace equipment being worn out year after year in an occupation without end? Are we now finally resolved to becoming what our rhetoric of a "grateful nation" is supposed to be?

We need to have an emergency action to take care of the those who serve or we will have no one willing to serve this nation again. We need to stop thinking of them as getting hand outs when they held their hands out to us first, ready and willing to serve and asking only that they do not have to suffer for their service by claims denied and care withheld.

The world is watching what we do. Do we value them as we say or do we keep using them up and tossing them away?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com


"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." George Washington


Iraq: NCCI's Weekly Highlight - 15 Nov 2007
Another risk for Iraqis: slackening?
With each passing month, the number of US troops returning back home from Iraq with emotional or mental distress is reported in increasing. Recent reports argue that more than a quarter of recent Iraq combat veterans are grappling with various psychological problems, while at least 40 percent of reservists suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
According to the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), "Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat."
If 40 percent of the troops who have been trained and prepared to be in a war context can suffer from such a disease, what about civilians, who have not been trained, who find themselves caught up in the maelstrom of violence afflicting so many of their neighborhoods?
These last few weeks, some war-torn areas of Iraq such as Baghdad and Anbar, once considered as the most violent places worldwide, are reported to have become calmer, or less violent. Actually the level of violence is reported to have scaled down to the level it was in 2006, which was then considered as unacceptable. However, while widely challenged and mainly due to divisions and withdrawal of neighborhoods, this "positive" trend changes little in the life of many Iraqis. Their life does not become safe, but their environment appears to be now less violent. In psychological terms, is the current level of violence less harmful, more acceptable?
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Iraq: NCCI's Weekly Highlight - 15 Nov 2007
ReliefWeb (press release) - Geneva,Switzerland