Washington Post Sunday Magazine: "Battle Worn"

[Penndems]

After he was injured in Iraq, Richard Twohig found himself fighting an unexpected foe: the U.S. Army.

By Paula Span
Sunday, February 25, 2007; Page W10

THE SHADES IN RICHARD TWOHIG'S GARDEN APARTMENT ARE DRAWN TIGHT AGAINST THE SUMMER SUN. This is partly because it's 94 degrees in Knoxville, Tenn., this afternoon, but also because light can trigger one of his bad headaches, the kind that make his knees buckle. His kids have grown accustomed to dimmed surroundings.

They've been cavorting on the living room carpet, Lizzie with her fuzzy pink dog named Princess, her little brother, Damon, with his prized jeep. Their chirpy ebullience isn't unusual for a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old who haven't had much chance to romp outside today but noise can bring on Twohig's migraines, as well. "Why don't you go up and play a while?" he suggests mildly, and they troop upstairs to their shared bedroom.

The apartment, which the family moved into three weeks ago after a nomadic year, still feels a bit empty. There's a couch and a coffee table and a big TV in the living room, but the walls are bare. Twohig wishes he had a yard for the children and their real dog, a boisterous Great Pyrenees named Athena. Still, the place is clean and comfortable, and he can manage the $570 rent on the disability checks that the Department of Veterans Affairs sends each month.

"If I have a good day, I try to take them up to the park at the school," he says, knowing that the kids should probably be outdoors more. It's only a two-minute drive. But he doesn't have so many good days.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022200891.html
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"After we're no good to them, they just get rid of us." Thank God Corporal Twohig has had the guts, determination and love of his mother to get him through this hell.

This is outrageous. Bureaucratic foot-dragging, an archaic disability rating system, buck-passing - and only three lawyers and a paralegal working full-time at Walter Reed handling disability cases, who don't meet with clients until one day before the disability board hearings. Our fighting men and women deserve much better than this.

(The author of this piece, Paula Span, and Mark Waple, the attorney representing Cpl. Twohig, will be conducting an online chat regarding this article on Monday at noon ET.)

Link to Monday's onliine discussion:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/02/23/DI2007022300671.html?sub=AR

Another outstanding report from the Post.

[ninkasi]

1. So in reality

this government sends the troops "over there" to fight people the government say are the enemy, and when they are brought back, broken in body, mind, and spirit, they have to fight the government "over here" in order to survive. This is shameful, and every single American should be speaking out now and demanding that our troops be treated with decency and respect.

I don't care how anybody feels about the war. I was adamantly opposed to Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, and believe that we should bring our troops home now. That doesn't mean, however, that I am against our troops. Bush is destroying Iraqis and Americans both, in his ego-bloated insistence at being a "war president." I can't begin to express how deep my contempt and loathing is for that coward.

This America, the one I live in today, is completely different than the country I was born in almost 64 years ago. I want the America I was born in back.

[Penndems]

3. We have a moral obligation to take care of our fighting men and women

If we, as a nation, fail to fix the broken bodies, minds and spirits of those in our military, over three thousand of whom have given their lives in this manufactured conflict, what does that say about us as a nation?

Every American should be outraged at the incompetence, arrogance and indifference with which our servicepeople have been treated. Where are the so-called "patriots" in the VFW and the DAV who supported this Administration's decision to take our troops into battle? How about those Swift Boat Veterans who refer to themselves as a "Band of Brothers"? Talk about gross negligence and jingoistic blustering!

[ninkasi]

5. I agree

Although I am in my sixties now, I can't imagine, even 40 years ago, being able to do what our brave men and women have volunteered to do. They chose to enlist, but I have no doubt that the ones who signed them up filled their heads with glowing reports of how they were being heroic, serving their country, and would be taken care of by the country they were enlisting for.

These men and women are the ones who bear the burdens, and the pain, of fighting a war which should have never be started. They have been shattered, in mind and body, and both, and you say, so well, " f we, as a nation, fail to fix the broken bodies, minds and spirits of those in our military, over three thousand of whom have given their lives in this manufactured conflict, what does that say about us as a nation?"

What it says, is that we are a shallow people, content to pat ourselves on the back because we slapped a yellow ribbon magnet on the back of our vehicles, and promptly forgot it as soon as the next sale at Walmart started. It says that we demand sacrifice, while not willing to sacrifice in return, even if we have to pay a bit more in taxes. Just shop less, if need be. It says that we will parrot the words, but not know their meaning, and salute a flag, which is sometimes folded, and handed to a grieving parent, or spouse, or child, of someone who died for us to have the right to fly that flag.

There are many, though, who make it back, and thank the lord don't have to have Taps played at their funeral, but who need our help in a way the dead are beyond our ability to reach. Some of our fellow citizens are still in their teens, or early twenties, but will never be able to work another day in their lives. Some might, if they get help, but God forbid that mean that Paris Hilton might pay a few more dollars in taxes.

When a country asks the people who serve in the military to face death, and maiming, the least the country, and we as the citizens of that country can do is to provide for the ones who have lost so much in our names. It doesn't matter if we agree with the cause they fought for,it only matters that to them they were fighting for us.

[SharonAnn]

2. He's a local guy. Lives abaout 15 miles from me so I've alerted our local

Democrats group and will alert our neighboring county's Democrat group. The Sweetwater area crosses part of these two counties.

mayber there's something we can do.

What a horrible story. My heart breaks.

[Penndems]

4. Thank you for doing this, SharonAnn

Perhaps some good will come of this. God knows he won't get any help from either one of his Senators, especially Lamar Alexander. :mad: