Growing Concern over Vets' Financial Issues, PTSD

Is it better for the troops coming home today than four years ago? Sure, but with the "better than nothing" thought, it is not as good as it should be when you think about the money spent. When you think about some folks in congress playing games with the lives of the combat veterans coming home, it should be sending warning bells across the nation. As bad as it is, it could have been worse had congress not acted in 2007, 08, 09 and 2010. Bills were flying out of congress to make it right but the troops had been in combat since 2001 in Afghanistan and 2003 in Iraq. They had a lot to make up for.

Four Years After Walter Reed, Government Still Faulted for Troop Support
Growing Concern over Vets' Financial Issues, PTSD

OVERVIEW

About a third (34%) of those who say the government has not done enough for returning troops point to mental health issues as the biggest area of concern; that is unchanged from 2008. However, specific mentions of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have doubled – from 5% to 11%.

As President Obama begins to draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan, most Americans continue to say that government support for troops returning from war is falling short.

The public remains divided over whether the American people give enough support to soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Opinions on this tilt more negative, however, among the families of those who have served in the military since the 9/11 terror attacks.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 15-19 among 1,502 adults, finds that the government gets better marks for supporting returning troops than it did in 2007, amid the scandal over military medical care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, or a year later.

Nonetheless, just 32% say the government gives enough support to soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly twice as many (62%) say the government does not provide enough support for the returning troops. In 2007 and 2008, even fewer said the government was providing adequate support for the troops (21% in 2007, 22% in 2008).
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Government Still Faulted for Troop Support

"Autism-awareness ribbons have supplanted war-related ribbons"

For the longest time I thought the biggest problem was to get veterans to understand what PTSD was so they would seek help, but over the last few years, the hardest battle has been to get the general public aware of what it is. You'd think since they all experience traumatic events in their lives, they'd be all too willing to understand what the troops go through when they are exposed to traumatic events over and over and over again. At the very least, when I attempted to pull in the police officers and firefighters into the discussion, since their exposures are never ending as well, I expected more interest, but I could see by their facial expression they simply were not interested.

In Central Florida, we have a lot of huge churches of every denomination. I visited over 20 of them trying to get them involved in raising community awareness for the sake of the returning National Guards and veterans. Only one pastor contacted me and he happened to be a chaplain as well.

How can you get people interested in a wound they have very little understanding of when they are not even paying attention to what is going on causing the wound? How can you get them to pay attention to what the families are going thru when you can't get them to pay attention to what they troops are going thru? The Impossible Dream theme music plays over and over in my brain because that is exactly what this all seems to be.

Magnet America of King, N.C., the largest manufacturer of yellow ribbons, saw sales peak at 1.2 million in August 2004. Now, sales are about 10,000 a month, said Chris Weeks, director of operations. Autism-awareness ribbons have supplanted war-related ribbons as the company's No. 1 seller.

"We have a stockpile of just under 900,000 unsold yellow ribbons," Weeks said. "The yellow ribbon fad for sure is gone."

Iraq war's supporters and protesters have one thing in common: They're paying attention. Is anyone else?
By Steve Wideman • Gannett Wisconsin Media • March 15, 2009

The question, scrawled in black ink on white poster board and stapled to a wooden lath, is inches from Bradley Bodee's face as he stands on the corner waiting to cross Appleton's College Avenue.

"Health Care or War?"

Bodee, 19, a Lawrence University physics major, doesn't give the sign a second glance. Nor does he hear the anti-war chants of Ronna Swift, one of 15 gathered for a monthly Saturday morning demonstration against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bodee is plugged into his iPod, listening to the Young Dubliners, an American Celtic rock band. When the "Walk" sign flashes, he steps off the curb without exchanging a glance or a word with the protesters.

"I haven't been able to keep up on the wars," Bodee tells a reporter once across the street. "I don't really know where the war is at right now."

Like other wars, the conflict in Iraq has divided the country into two Americas, but this is different. This time, supporters and protesters are on the same side: Americans who still pay attention to the war, including members of the military and their families.

On the other side are people like Bodee, who live in an America that's no longer emotionally invested in Iraq or Afghanistan Some say the wars have dragged on so long they've lost interest. Others are too worried about the economy to concern themselves with events half a world away that don't seem directly to affect them.

The lack of a military draft is a big reason fewer civilian Americans are emotionally invested this time around, observers say. There's even a school of thought that waning interest in the war stems in part from the lack of any searing, iconic photographic images from Iraq, something virtually every other American conflict has produced.

It's a benign divide — generally, there are no shouts or confrontations; both Americas support and appreciate the troops. But it's a divide nonetheless, separating two worlds that co-exist but often are unable to relate, and it's everywhere — running through bank lobbies and airport concourses, restaurants and cemeteries, classrooms and street corners.
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http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20090315/OSH0101/903150405/1128/OSH01