James Risen, one of The New York Times's finest reporters, has a story up called Back From Iraq, Contractors Face Combat-Related Stress:
Contractors who have worked in Iraq are returning home with the same kinds of combat-related mental health problems that afflict United States military personnel, according to contractors, industry officials and mental health experts.
But, they say, the private workers are largely left on their own to find care, and their problems often go ignored or are inadequately treated.
A vast second army, one of contractors — up to 126,000 Americans, Iraqis and other foreigners — is working for the United States government in Iraq. Many work side-by-side with soldiers and are exposed to the same dangers, but they mostly must fend for themselves in navigating the civilian health care system when they come back to the United States. ...
"I think the numbers are in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands," said Paul Brand, a psychologist and chief executive of Mission Critical Psychological Services, a Chicago firm hired by Dyncorp International, a major contractor in Iraq, to assess and treat its workers. "Many are going undiagnosed. These guys are fighting demons, and they don’t know how to cope."
Jana Crowder, who runs a Web site for contractors seeking help, says she gets new evidence of that every day in phone calls from desperate workers.
Yet more fallout from the war and occupation that was concocted for us by the Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld cabal.
And what did one of those liars have to say today? Same old, same old:
President Bush defended his Iraq war policy in a patriotic Fourth of July talk, saying that while he honors the sacrifice of U.S. troops, now is not the time to bring them home.
Bush said victory in Iraq will require "more patience, more courage and more sacrifice."
"If we were to quit Iraq before the job is done, the terrorists we are fighting would not declare victory and lay down their arms. They would follow us here," Bush said at the West Virginia Air National Guard.
Sheesh. Nobody expected the message to be different. But couldn't somebody at least edit the f'n script?