Have you thought abou the upcoming human tragedy?

[burythehatchet]

At some point, the vets who survive Iraq are going to come home. We have seen what the invasion and occupation of Iraq is doing to them mentally. I know pleanty of Vietnam vets and most of them have some sort of emotional problem. Most of the problems are manageable with meds but some are not. I knew one guy who played softball with us. Every time a plane flew overhead or there was a loud sound he would involuntarily dive to the ground and attempt to take cover. It was sad.

When these kids come home, and their VA medical benefits are cut, what will their future look like?

[babylonsister]

1. Also, how many families will be devastated by the 'changed

person' who returns home? And how many incidents of violence will occur by a soldier with PTSD? How many suicides? We're already hearing about some of them. :-(

[driver8]

5. My parents were friends with a Vietnam vet who, when he returned,

disappeared into the woods of Maine for a couple of years. He lived by himself in solitude and had contact with people only when he absolutely had to.

There are going to be some screwed up kids coming home. The horrors they are witnessing are unimaginable.

[babylonsister]

9. My b-i-l is a VN vet, age 55. He's still highly messed up, has been

since spending less than a year in VN in the 60s. He was a tunnel rat, and has never gotten over it. He hasn't disappeared into the woods, but they go on vacation to exotic places and his preference is to remain undercover in his hotel room. It's so sad, and will be for the rest of his life.
I fear for these soldiers.

[TahitiNut]

10. We still have quite a few brothers behind the "Redwood Curtain" ...

... in Northern California. Sometimes I almost envy them. :cry:

[burythehatchet]

11. the spouse, the children...

it makes me very sad to think what kind of shape these people will be in, and what kind of country they will be coming home to. A patriotic revolution is just over the horizon.

[uppityperson]

2. Yes.

and the upcoming human tragedy when this generations' kids grow up hating kids of another country (pick which country to start with, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc etc etc)

[burythehatchet]

3. I recall in the late 70's and early 80's

watching Palestinian children fighting Israeli tanks with rocks and I though to myself...what will these kids do when they are in their 20's. I have my answer now. When the Iraqi children who survive become young adults we will have another enemy for a generation.

[uppityperson]

4. and around and around and around we go. Again. Still. sigh

[Ilsa]

6. I'm hoping most will be okay, or okay over time and

a little help. My brother handled thunderstorms very poorly for about five years after the first Persian Gulf War (he was in artillery; howitzer).

But yes, there will be those who are in over their heads emotionally. I hope there will be enough kind people out there to recognize when someone needs help and assist them in getting it. But we all know the Bushes and Cheneys and Rumsfelds aren't those people.

[serryjw]

7. We have had a sample already

with the kids coming home, killing their wives and then themselves. When you think about how many are still in trouble from Gulf 1, I can only imagine. Gulf 2 is so much worse.........Shall we discuss depleted uranium?

[burythehatchet]

8. depleted uranium? No such thing

If there was, there would be some medical assistance available. Since there is no such thing, the vets must be malingering.
:eyes:

[serryjw]

12. I understand

The vets are making it up, their wives are making it up and their deformed children conceived after they returned from Gulf one made it up.
quote.......
National Center of Vital Statistics estimate that 100,000 of 694,000 U.S. veterans of the first gulf war would be dead by 2013.
end quote........
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2005/DU-Gulf-War-Veterans4may05.htm

[OneBlueSky]

13. the US use of depleted uranium weapons may well be the . . .

single worst atrocity inflicted on a people since WWII . . . a crime against humanity of the highest order . . .

and those responsible must ultimately be held accountable by the community of nations . . .

[serryjw]

16. Our troops and most

of the Iraqis have been exposed. As bad as Gulf 1 was, we have money. NOW we have none to help them.

[sutz12]

14. Another generation fucked up

Sold to Corporate America.

:argh:

[LWolf]

15. I've been thinking about it since before they left.

One of the reasons I didn't want to send them at all.

[niyad]

17. it isn't just the ptsd and depleted uranium vets who won't be getting any

care that we have to worry about. we KNOW that we have heard only a tiny fraction of what is really happening over there--not just abu ghraib, not just haditha, but many, many more. think about the soldiers who are doing these terrible things, who aren't going to get caught, or punished, who are being turned loose in society, the ones who enjoy killing and maiming, torture and humiliation.

I think we are in for some very terrible times as these people come back. and yes, I hold that lying bunch of war-mongering thugs in power directly responsible. but it isn't they who will be paying the price, but the communities in which these people will be living.

the stories of the suicides, the murders of wives and children, are only the beginning of what we are going to see.

[bobbieinok]

18. having been a young adult in the 60s, I just can NOT understand

why we are repeating the same thing in Iraq.

Maybe b/c Gulf War I was such a 'clean war.' I could not understand why there was so little opposition to that war. Didn't people claim that that war 'wiped out the shame of Vietnam'?

That war was so short and for those at home it was such a 'video game' war that IMO many thought that all wars from then on would be like that for us Americans, the 'good guys.'