From ‘This Cannot Be So’ To ‘This Is How Our Army Treats Its Battle‑Damaged Troops’: The Fort Hood Testimonies

This article by Kevin Gosztola at FDL is so nearly unbelievable that I read it twice to make sure I understood as many of the particulars as I could. There is no "short version"; please read the whole thing, and whether or not you are a veteran of the US military; no matter how bad your "outrage fatigue" may be... if you are an American citizen, prepare to be outraged.

The only summary I can offer is this: many if not most of the promises made to our troops as they rotate through an unbelievable number of deployments in war zones are blatantly and willfully not fulfilled by their commanding officers, by the command hierarchy all the way up to the President, by the Department of Defense and by the VA (which, in fairness, does not have independent discretion). We may think of the era of the disposable soldier and of deplorable treatment of combat veterans as having begun with the era of Cheney, Rumsfeld et al, and indeed that is possible... but never forget that the most unconscionable, despicable practices, e.g., disciplining and discharging soldiers for their battle-induced disabilities, are systemic, and continue to this very day.

These findings and associated analysis (.pdf, 42pp) were extracted from the report issued by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Civilian-Soldier Alliance, and Under the Hood Cafe and Outreach Center, in Killeen, Texas. The Findings and Analysis section begins as follows:

The testimonies herein concern Fort Hood—as the country’s largest Army installation; as a place that experienced high deployment and redeployment rates throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; as a post with a notoriously under-resourced and over-taxed mental health care and service infrastructure; and as a community grappling with the effects of those shortfalls. But the Fort Hood testimonies also concern something much broader—the Army’s attempt to hold down combat and counterinsurgency operations in two theaters with volunteer forces over the course of a decade; the long legacy of multiple deployments; and the ongoing health care needs of a generation of veterans on whose labor and bodies these wars have depended.

This section is not a long document, but it is a difficult read... you may want to wait to read it until you are in a calm frame of mind.

There is no justification for this maltreatment of the men and women who volunteer to protect us and in doing so often sacrifice their health for the rest of their lives. And yet the maltreatment clearly represents the premeditated policies of two presidential administrations and of two political parties, led by people many of whom never served in the military. America needs to take a good, hard look at these policies, and Americans need to know enough about them to feel the justified outrage. On this day after Memorial Day, we can do no less for those who protect and defend us.

"War is hell," with or without such policies, and that probably cannot be changed. But our leaders have arranged things so that peace after war is also hell for our battle-damaged and administratively maltreated troops, and it is an obligation of the highest order to rectify that obscenity.

American Veteran? Need Urgent Medical Care? The VA Often Can't / Won't Help You

Via Firedoglake, we learn from CNN that at least one VA (Phoenix) has two waiting lists, one real and secret, one fake and public. Many vets never make it to the head of the real list to receive care... they die before they do.

Having worked in various institutions in the Texas Medical Center (not including the VA) over a period of more than 20 years, I've known a lot of VA employees... clinicians and researchers, medical staff and support staff. Virtually every one I've talked to voices frustration, usually quietly for fear of their jobs, at the managerial and political malfeasance that ultimately leads to results such as those in Phoenix. It is not the fault of the medical and research staffers; they're doing everything they can to make it work. But it's a herculean effort in the face of insurmountable barriers.

He survived the IED.
Will he survive the PTSD?
How about the VA?

The political obstacles are often overwhelming. When not only Republican administrations such as the deplorable Bush 43 administration but also Democratic administrations such as Obama's insist on involvement in multiple simultaneously active wars and practices that lead to long-term disability in huge numbers of troops after their service in those multiple wars, coupled with elected executive-branch officials (Cheney, for instance) who themselves have "other priorities" than military service and thus have no goddamned clue what combat in today's wars can lead to for individual troops... when you face and unsuccessfully attempt to deal with both of those phenomena... you end up with a view at the highest levels that troops sent into combat are, in a word, disposable, and there is no hesitation in disposing of them when they come back home in a state of utter medical ruin.

This is not right. Not right at all. All presidential administrations from Ronald Reagan's forward through the present one should be ashamed of themselves.