Our country may well be crawling with insane killers when the boys get to come home, thanks to Bush.

[symbolman]

Also in the Post's Sunday opinion section is a piece by Ronald Glasser which reports: "About 1,800 U.S. troops, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, are now suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) caused by penetrating wounds. But neurologists worry that hundreds of thousands more -- at least 30 percent of the troops who've engaged in active combat for four months or longer in Iraq and Afghanistan -- are at risk of potentially disabling neurological disorders from the blast waves of IEDs and mortars, all without suffering a scratch.

"For the first time, the U.S. military is treating more head injuries than chest or abdominal wounds, and it is ill-equipped to do so. According to a July 2005 estimate from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, two-thirds of all soldiers wounded in Iraq who don't immediately return to duty have traumatic brain injuries."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003568727

****************

I had the honor of taking care of 300 of these types of Veterans at a VA Hospital after I was discharged from the Air Force during the Vietnam Era, and I can tell you that our society will suffer immeasurably, as well as these Veterans, when they return to fill our streets and homes.

These will be the gifts that keep on giving, many will not be able to deal with LIFE at all, or hold a job, many will suck up drugs to kill the pain and confusion, and they will beat their wives and children, as well as kill people for no apparent reason, and be left by our govt to eat garbage, and be treated like it, along with no support net whatsoever.

I've seen it, been there, and I can tell you, if you are of the age where you saw Reagan toss these canaries into howling 100 degree below weather, you will not even be able to imagine the pain and suffering of these poor bastards.

This war will not be over when they come home. It will just be starting. Right here in our own country.

Let's hope and pray to god that the DEMS can HELP these guys, but I won't hold out much hope, it doesn't take much to overwhelm the system, no matter how much money you throw at it, and the ripples will fan out like shockwaves through families.

I doubt that there'll be much money left once Bush and Cheney and Rove have emptied the Treasury.

God Damn Bush for what he's done to our Countrymen.

He'd better hope there isn't a God, or a Hell, or even such a thing as Karma exists, or he'll be a cockroach in Hell for a trillion years.

Scum.

[knowbody0]

1. thanks for all that you do and have done, Symbolman

You are right of course, the wake of this madness is eternal.

[billbuckhead]

2. And leave it to the gun "enthusiast" crowd to give them ez access to guns

Ez access to high performance semi automatic assault rifles. Ez access to 50.cal sniper rifles that can shoot down aircraft, penetrate light armor and assassinate from a mile away. Ez access to a concealed weapons permit to legally carry powerful firearms hidden from society's view into our commons such schools, churches, synagogues, malls, courthouses and highways.

The problem just isn't with damaged soldiers coming back from hell but with the ez access to the most powerful guns and our promiscuous gun regulations which always seem to lie on the side of having a gun because it sells more guns. How long will it be until we have another rash of liberal leaders killed by guns?

[bmbmd]

13. Who needs a gun?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=601569&mesg_id=601569

[SJames]

21. Give me a break

bill , these men fought and died so you can live free and spout your vile BS. If you had half a clue it might be worth the read .

[Irreverend IX]

22. Why are you hijacking barely-related topics...

To spam your inane rants? Can't take the heat in the Gungeon anymore? Typing "ez access" over and over looks kinda dumb, you know. The lies about .50 caliber rifles "shooting down aircraft" have been debunked over and over, and the fact that you continue to repeat such false claims doesn't reflect well on you. And to top things off you add "liberal leaders killed by guns." Guns never killed anyone by themselves, Bill... the people behind the trigger did.

[benEzra]

24. And leave it to the ban-guns types to hijack unrelated threads...

to bash gun-owning DU'ers...

[NMDemDist2]

3. I fear you are correct symbolman. Even those who aren't violent

will be broken in so many ways

for those who aren't peers of VietNam vets, it's a tragedy of epic proportions waiting in the wings for our country men and women.

[crikkett]

4. what can we do to try to mitigate or manage the problem

of traumatized vets? And don't say 'end the war' -- that's obvious.

I mean, what can we do to take care of these men and women?

Thanks

[valerief]

5. It's Vietnam all over again. nt

[porphyrian]

6. Monsters make monsters. - n/t

[symbolman]

7. I think this needs to be addressed

when the next round of elections come up.. what is the Next President going to DO about these poor, broken men? The Next Congress, what will it's makeup be?

WHO will fix what Bush has broken?

This needs to be one of the Highest Priorities, moreso I'd say than GI Bills, etc, though they are important too.

Didn't Obama come up with some solution lately, Veteran's Homes or something?

The american people need to realise that these folks are going to need MORE than any war that has come before, and start ACTING on it.

Demanding answers NOW.

Man, I feel for these people.

[Bobbieo]

8. Many will turn to drugs if they haven't already - most likely 'meth'

Scary huh? I've thought this right along as I have an addict son.

[cassiepriam]

9. The troops have access to any drug they want in Iraq.

Many are going to come home seriously addicted.

[EFerrari]

10. symbolman, you've posted exactly what I've felt this entire time.

To see these beautiful young people being WRECKED, having their lives changed for the worse FOREVER, knowing they won't have the endurance to fight FOR THEIR OWN CARE, it's an obscenity.

This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed. The very worst.

For the lives of our service people alone, these bastards have to be brought to justice.

[symbolman]

15. It reminds me of people online that you meet for the first time

or when folks first started posting online to each other, and some got that feeling that it wasn't a REAL PERSON they were talking to.. so many folks get aggressive and disrespectful, until you MEET SOMEONE Online, THEN they're REAL.. :)

Seems like Bush is treating these people like they're little Green Army Men, pieces fall off, you just throw them away..

I think this will be the worse return in History of troops, never have the ratios been so OFF - many of these folks would have died in Nam, and this 'war' on Bush's Poverty is going on LONGER THAN WW2 for Christ's sakes!!!

SHAME.

I agree wholeheartedly with you my friend :)

[EFerrari]

20. There should be a way for the community to help track returnees -

to make sure they get whats coming to them and support them and their family through their re-entry. It's so much easier to dump people if no one is looking out for them.

[petgoat]

11. So the covert operatives will have a deep and wide pool of

crazed lone gunmen to draw on for patsies for their hits.

[formercia]

12. I spent a couple of weeks in a VA hospital

and saw some of those that will never even make it to the street. I hear you Bro. Scary.

[butterfly77]

14. I have been thinking about this every since...

I have been hearing about some of the stories from early in the war. I think that they believe that they will continue to believe this garbage that they have been spouting and when they come back they may turn on these repugs who keep spouting some of these lines that bush has, when they now know in reality its not true, But our society in general will have to face the consequences...

[lala_rawraw]

16. this is very frightening

and tragic... thanks for posting this.

[bdamomma]

17. there will be alot of Timothy McVeighs coming back.

he was also a vet from Desert Storm, Bush's Daddy's war, who had psychological problems.

[moondust]

18. Employers

will turn them away assuming war has screwed them up somehow. This went on during Vietnam.

[elehhhhna]

19. Our neighbor-gal leaves in 2 weeks. She has changed so much

in training-- I guess they have to harden these kids up to prepare them for "war", but Boy has she changed.

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. Just what he deserves, he and the rest of his murderous thug malAdministration.

He better hope there isn't a God, or a Hell, or even such a thing as Karma exists, or he'll be a cockroach in Hell for a trillion years.