...the story of thousands of Personality Disorder Discharges from the U.S. armed services.
This is the institution I'm supposed to respect as such?
This is how the Bush Administration thanks those it chewed up and spat out in their miserable war of economic aggression? If these men aren't hauled before a court with the power to punish them, then justice will have lost the war and they'll be rounding us up for the camps.
...
I have a friend that decided to join the U.S. Marine Corps, knowing full well that he'd be going to Afghanistan. This was a pretty smart guy, conservative to the extent that he was political at all. When he came back on leave, he was a different kind of person. Not nice. Not anybody I'd ever want to be around.
There are going to be a lot of people like that coming home if we can only manage to make it to November without a national tragedy and an attendant clampdown on what's left of our civil liberties. They are going to be back among a population that realized three years too late that it sent them over there for no good damned reason.
I have a feeling that even in the best eventuality, it might well be as bad as Viet Nam with respect to PTSD or worse. There aren't as many actual deaths as in that great tragedy, but how many very seriously damaged people are coming back?
I saw this friend of mine again a couple of weeks ago, and he only has a short time left to serve. But he's telling me that there's no way in hell he'd re-up. I guess he's one of the lucky ones.
And he's getting out on good terms. These guys are getting kicked out after cracking under the nightmare and seeking help. It's a national disgrace, and this should be the only count needed to impeach the son of a bitches at the top.
Very pleased to see that Obama and Bond are working on the issue. I can't imagine that he'd know about this situation unless while out on the campaign trail, he met these people. They, I suspect, came to him en masse to ask him to help if they'd help elect him, and he responded.
That's leadership.
Wonder if McCain will sign on?
T.