Thursday, November 11, 2010
For Our Veterans (and not only)
Sergeant Chuck Luther was wounded by mortar fire, then held in a closet for over a month until he signed papers saying he suffered from "personality disorder."
For three years The Nation has been reporting on military doctors' fraudulent use of personality disorder to discharge wounded soldiers. PD is a severe mental illness that emerges during childhood and is listed in military regulations as a pre-existing condition, not a result of combat. Thus those who are discharged with PD are denied a lifetime of disability benefits, which the military is required to provide to soldiers wounded during service. Soldiers discharged with PD are also denied long-term medical care. And they have to give back a slice of their re-enlistment bonus. That amount is often larger than the soldier's final paycheck. As a result, on the day of their discharge, many injured vets learn that they owe the Army several thousand dollars.
According to figures from the Pentagon and a Harvard University study, the military is saving billions by discharging soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan with personality disorder.
More from Joshua Kors.
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Today I am utterly devoid of thoughts and words, so I will let fellow blogger Robert Stein speak for me:
ReplyDelete“ Last year I was among those in their seventies and eighties trying to reach across generations to explain to eighth-graders what life was like in World War II.
For those children, the messages boiled down to a simple story: We went because our country needed us, we did what had to be done, even when and especially when we were afraid, and we learned how much we were connected to those who protected us as we protected them.
We learned about living in a world larger than ourselves and that we had to take government and politics seriously and join in a process that put us and might in the future put them in harm's way far from home.
This year I did not have the heart to stand there and talk about all that as those children are about to inherit a country that has utterly forgotten its unity in a time when there were stars in almost every window with families sacrificing food, gasoline and other necessities for the war effort and where people flocked to USOs to make strangers in uniform feel loved and appreciated in their common effort for survival.
If Americans truly want to celebrate Veterans Day, they might want to reflect on how patriotism has become a mask for selfishness, how sacrifice has become a dirty word and how hatred of one another has replaced love of the country that shelters us all.
Otherwise they will be honoring those who bled and died for it with empty words.”
Octo, after seeing this video and reading Kors's report I'm stilltoo livid with rage to come up with a coherent comment. Maybe later.
ReplyDeleteDitto. Too outraged to comment.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone really claim to be surprised by how our military veterans are treated?
ReplyDeleteOne of the two lessons the powers that be gleaned from the Vietnam debacle (the second being to control the message) was to go forward with a 'professional, all volunteer armed forces'.
Drafted college kids from middle and upper middle class backgrounds (and their parents) wouldn't put up with the nonsense of 'Operation Enduring Freedom' or 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' as long as we have to date with such minimal success.
But build an 'all-volunteer' armed forces built upon a preponderance of the economically disadvantaged and poorly educated who's going to complain? There aren't many sons or daughters of politicians or professionals involved in the heavy lifting. And that couldn't be more intentional.
And given the attitudes displayed toward the poor and the disadvantaged these days why should our military veterans be treated any differently than any other member of those groups?
I am outraged and disgusted - not only by the behavior of army doctors but also the ass boil Rep Buyer who would disrespect this brave and damaged man.
ReplyDeleteBut sadly, I'm not surprised at all...
I have nothing to add except that I share the outrage and disgust expressed by you all. I would think that by now I wouldn't be shocked by the lack of ethics and basic morality that so often characterizes our government.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that most of the gigantic amounts of money spent on the military every year goes to "hardware," not the human element -- that's a shame. Being in the armed forces is a calling, one that entails considerable sacrifice and risk. The least the government could do is make sure it's a decent-paying job with good benefits (including medical care and suchlike after discharge).
ReplyDeleteAnd before the evening is out, let me take the opportunity as one of SWASH's simplest creatures to offer a simple, "Happy Veteran's Day" to all those who have served in the Armed Forces. Thanks, and may you always be treated with the the high regard you deserve.
ReplyDeleteWe denied the effects of Agent Orange for decades. Denial of responsibility is the American way. We practically institutionalize it. Perhaps it is way of human psychology.
ReplyDeleteArthurstone, your response sounds almost exactly like my husband's, who has had to put up with my ranting on the subject all day and likely will have to with more in the future.
ReplyDeleteI'm deeply disturbed by this story, for so many reasons that all of you have already brought up here (and yes, Buyer is a %#$@*&% -- there, I've said it -- with his histrionic and disingenuous posturing -- "[he is] disadvantaged by [his] integrity and respect," my ass).
I cannot get over the complicity of the mental health professionals in this disgusting, unethical and (possibly) criminal enterprise. There are psychiatrists and psychologists who signed off on the fraudulent and absurd post-facto diagnosis of PD in those soldiers. I would like them to be publicly identified and stripped of their licenses, at least.
The Soviet psychiatry, which I had a "privilege" of tasting during my school years, was infamous for diagnosing dissidents, or even regular folks critical of the system, with paranoid schizophrenia in order to shun and isolate them in mental hospitals or "rehabilitation" camps, if needed.
This practice of retroactive (mis)diagnosing of combat veterans with PD, which flies in the face of everything decent, including common sense, very much reminds of the Soviet psychiatry's abuses of human rights. It is really no different, and, in some respects, possibly even worse.
After all, these soldiers, far from being overtly (or at all) critical of the country, put their trust in its institutions, expecting, rightly so, that after risking their lives, the basic promises made to them would be honored. Instead, they are getting this -- and with a full approval and participation of doctors whose guiding principle should be, "First, do no harm."
I am livid.
P.S. Earlier today, I contacted Joshua Kors, the author of this report. Part of his response to me is below:
ReplyDeleteThere are so many ways you can help. Send the video to friends. Urge them to send it to theirs. No problem ever got solved without first widespread awareness.
Second, sure, contact your reps. Invite them to watch the video: http://www.facebook.com/l/676fbc2Q3c2c1Q9rptXq8Hr6rjg;bit.ly/torturehearings. My bet is that most of your reps and their office associates have never heard of this problem. If you'd like, you can urge them to take action.
You could reach out to Sgt. Luther and his new veterans group, http://www.facebook.com/l/676fbdUvDBZn7w8KYFHqZ1JEtwQ;www.disposablewarriors.com.
You could even reach out to a military family in your neighborhood, see if they need help with babysitting so they can go to their VA doctor's appointment, mowing the lawn because they're too wounded to do heavy chores, etc. (...) Make an effort this year to get to know one soldier/veteran/military family, and see what it is you can do for them. Best way to mark the holiday.
Elizabeth, thank you for providing some insight as to what we can do to address this betrayal of the people who have served our country. There is nothing worse than being angry and feeling powerless.
ReplyDeleteDino,
ReplyDelete"Being in the armed forces is a calling, one that entails considerable sacrifice and risk."
I don't agree with this statement for 90+% of the force.
For the highest ranking officers, service was possibly a calling or became a calling, but for the majority of the soldiers and sailors and airmen, it is a job with benefits. For most, it was the one option they could take that offered educational opportunities, advancement possibilities, raises, housing, insurance, clothing allowance, board, etc. The force is ethnically skewed, reflecting the inequality of civilian opportunities for all.
For the kids talking to their recruiters right this minute, it's nearly always the best they can do in the economy. A few want to play with the cool toys (planes, bombs, guns, etc.), and a few want to kick some Al Qaida ass, but most don't have a beef with anybody. They just don't want to live on their parents anymore. They don't have a clue what they are getting into.
I worry daily about those kids. I worry hourly about the troops. But I worry most, long and hard, about the ones for whom military life is "a calling," for there is potential in this category for a serious misapprehension of life. They are both potentially and actually dangerous for us all.
Nance,
ReplyDeleteI'm entirely aware of the "job with benefits" aspect of things. Sure, many young people go into the military to escape poverty or a difficult situation at home. It's a raw deal that they should have to do that when middle- and upper-class kids have easier options to pursue.
At the same time, what I see and hear of young people in the military says much in favor of their professionalism and courage -- qualities people show best when they are proud of what they're doing or at least believe it's worthwhile. It seems to me that people can have conflicting or multiple motives for doing what they do, so on Veterans' Day, I preferred to use language that fully recognizes this dimension.