I Cogitate
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Where is the VFW in helping disabled soldiers?
You know the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)? Or at least the stooge sellouts that run it. You can always find them bootlicking the Commander-In-Chief at the annual VFW convention regardless of what the President has done to abuse those in the military. No body armor? The VFW doesn't care.. No vehicle armor? The VFW doesn't care. Three or four renditions to Iraq per military unit? The VFW doesn't care.
The following article certainly isn't breaking news but it's stand up or shut up time for the VFW. After all, on the web site for the VFW is this: The VFW continues to be the nation's strongest voice for veterans and the catalyst for change in improving veteran's benefits.
It's in your court VFW Administration. Show us your true colors. Are you truly with the vets or is backslapping with the President more important to you?
Troops Who Show Signs of Mental Illness Are Being Forced Into Combat, Newspaper ReportsTo read the rest, go here. To read the Hartford Courant original stories, go here.
The Associated Press
May 13, 2006
U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness, a newspaper reported for Sunday editions.
The Hartford Courant, citing records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and more than 100 interviews of families and military personnel, reported numerous cases in which the military failed to follow its own regulations in screening, treating and evacuating mentally unfit troops from Iraq.
In 1997, Congress ordered the military to assess the mental health of all deploying troops. The newspaper, citing Pentagon statistics, said fewer than 1 in 300 service members were referred to a mental health professional before shipping out for Iraq as of October 2005.
Twenty-two U.S. troops committed suicide in Iraq last year, accounting for nearly one in five of all non-combat deaths and the highest suicide rate since the war started, the newspaper said.
Some service members who committed suicide in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite clear signs of mental distress, sometimes after being prescribed antidepressants with little or no mental health counseling or monitoring, the Courant reported. Those findings conflict with regulations adopted last year by the Army that caution against the use of antidepressants for "extended deployments."
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