Ian Bowers on leave from Iraq homicide by drunk driving

Dave Zweifel: After vets return, war takes deadly toll
Dave Zweifel — 1/18/2008 10:06 am

The homicide by drunken driving sentencing of Ian Bowers, the young Madison soldier who was home on leave from the Iraq war, happened to come on the eve of an eye-opening investigation by the New York Times on the impact that war is having on so many of its returning veterans.

There is nothing to say that Bowers was suffering from the psychological stress of the war. But his picture is included in the newspaper's photo montage of vets who have been involved in homicides after returning home from the war.

Bowers was sentenced to 13 years in prison for driving more than 70 miles an hour through a residential intersection and crashing into another car. The accident took two lives and seriously injured two others on Christmas Day in 2006.

The newspaper's report makes it clear that the fatal incidents represent a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of vets returning from Iraq, but there have been enough cases that the military and others are expressing concern. According to the story, at least 121 vets of Iraq and Afghanistan have either committed a killing or are charged with one. And many more have committed suicide.

And like Ian Bowers, most have had no problems with their lives or the law before their war service.
go here for the rest
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/268017

Ever think things like this could have more to do with IED blowing them up in Iraq than it does to being just another irresponsible drunk driver?