One Price
by ChrisDecember 16th, 2004 12:35 am
From the New York Times -
An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans. Because about one million American troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that the number eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed 100,000.
After the death, after the physical mutilation, after the destruction and after the utter brutality of war, there is this - the long-term aftermath on the psychological state of those who served.
If you live, as I do, in one of America’s large cities, you know, first hand, that our country has failed miserably in terms of caring for those we sent to war. We see it daily on our streets, in the form of broken, shattered people who served, willingly or not, in prior wars. Our mental health system, already stretched, is being introduced to a whole new wave of combat veterans. That system is not capable of dealing with its current workload, let alone what it is about to face, and it’s about to face an onslaught.
As bad as our mental health system is, our system for caring for the homeless is far, far worse. The homeless you pass on the by street a decade from now will, as likely as not, be some of the same men and woman who are serving in Iraq now. Cheap yellow ribbon magnets on the back of our cars and grand proclamations of our support won’t help them. Not one bit.
