The Pentagon has informed thousands of American soldiers in Iraq that their Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was a pre-existing condition from before they ever joined the military. In other words, NO TREATMENT, NO INSURANCE, NO NOTHING!
And if that isn’t holy-fucking-shit awful enough for you, American soldiers suffering brain injuries while in Iraq are being told that also was a pre-existing condition.
More than 22,000 soldiers serving in Iraq have been kicked out of the US military entirely – booted from a war zone straight to the streets – for seeking treatment for the psychological effects of combat and brain injuries. Now, they’re jobless, without medical coverage, and in immediate need of medical treatment that Bush’s Pentagon/VA absolutely refuses to provide.
It’s so off-the-charts evil that even Republican senators are speaking up...
"They've kicked out about 22,000 troops who they say have pre-existing personality disorders. I don't believe that," Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) said in an interview Friday. "And when you kick them out, they don't get the assistance they need, they aren't entitled to DOD or Veterans Administration care for those problems."
Here’s more from the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
One Republican congressional staff member who works on military issues said the rationale behind the Pentagon's practice was: "We didn't break you, you were already broken. You're not our responsibility."
"One soldier I know received a diagnosis for a personality disorder after a 45-minute talk," said the staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He'd been in the military 10 years, had made it his career, and then he was told he was being shuffled out in a couple of weeks. We keep getting these stories.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is leading the charge. Sens. Obama and Bond have worked together to get legislation blocking this abuse of our soldiers by the Bush’s Pentagon into the new defense appropriations bill.