The epidemic of suicides among veterans of the Iraq war with PTSD has become so common that I sat down to write about two news ones today and end up writing about an even more recent, and shocking, one.  It involves a decorated vet who wrote about his PTSD for the Marine Corps Gazette-- and this week killed himself and his brother after a long police chase in Arizona.

Police have discovered no motive for the killings, nor why the brothers earlier in the week may have planned to commit suicide by driving into the Grand Canyon -- Thelma and Louise style.

Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, 36, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993 and held the combat action ribbon -- and  met President Bush a few weeks ago --  wrote a lengthy article in the January issue of the Marine Corps Gazette detailing his efforts to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.   He loved his country so much he named his son America, The Arizona Republic reports today.

In my diary of Wednesday, May 14, 2008, I stated the premise that the McGuire VA Hospital was accepting socks for soldiers that would otherwise not have them. I also said that the government could not afford socks.

I am aware now that this isn't the case. I have been in contact with someone from the hospital, and they have set me straight as to what the real needs are. I was wrong, and I apologize for ever giving the impression that these 'facts' I presented were true.

It was be billed on Thursday as the first full-scale testimony in Congress by anti-Iraq war veterans, and it's a shame it has taken this long.  A statement on Friday by Matthis Chiroux, 24, who is now refusing to be deployed to Iraq -- after serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere as an Army journalist -- will surely get the most attention, but don't miss the rest.  

"I stand before you today with the strength and clarity and resolve to declare to the military, my government and the world that this soldier will not be deploying to Iraq," Chiroux said in a House rotunda today.

"My decision is based on my desire to no longer continue violating my core values to support an illegal and unconstitutional occupation... I refuse to participate in the Iraq occupation," he said, as a dozen veterans of the Iraq war looked on.

The 1st Pander Bear-Mcbush Follies Chronicling the Downfall of "old floppy"

Was there ever a "straight talking maverick"?

How much was a myth some wanted to believe?

For those finding comfort in Mcbush, someone you think you know . . . The 2008 candidate, is not the "straight talker" of old!

We now have the Washington insider, Pander Bear Mcbush - flip-flopping, Old Floppy . . . Oh No!!

America understand, the "maverick" has left the building!

I'm sorry, we just can't afford you, Mcbush!

Let's make sure his White House journey is by appointment only!

[Cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org]

This entire week, I've been blogging my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq, who has been brave enough to share her experiences with contractor abuse and the harm it is causing our troops. Her testimony has placed a spotlight on the need for policies that truly support the troops in practice, not just in rhetoric. For as much as the current administration uses empty talking points such as "protect of our national security" and "support the troops" to justify its policies, when it comes down to it, our leaders clearly view the well-being of the soldiers on the front lines as an afterthought to the profits they and their cronies have reaped from the war. In this final entry, Rachel weighs in on the need for accountability:

Browsing the NYT website, I stumbled upon War Torn and its accompanying articles including Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles. The NYT describes War torn as A series of articles and multimedia about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home. Reading some of these horrific stories can only leave the impression that we have failed our veterans when they return home. Some of these tragedies may have been prevented with adequate mental health care. I encourage everyone to read the series.

Yesterday we learned that mental health professionals in Veterans Adminstration offices were being told what diagnosis they could give to Veterans being assessed for psychiatric sequelae related to the war. Given the recent cover-up of incidence of suicide, this is further evidence of the dishonest, callous, unethical, and inhumane behavior of this administration.

Keith Olberman discussed this tonight on Countdown.

As a licensed clinical social worker in the State of Massachusetts, a former board member of the Massachusetts National Association of Social Workers, and an adjunct faculty member teaching at now two graduate schools of Social Work, I want to inform everyone, especially Vets, that while the Veteran’s Administration can attempt to dictate diagnosis, which is highly unethical, Social Workers are ethically bound to give the diagnosis that best fits the reported symptoms. The VA is evidently ordering professionally trained persons to violate their ethical responsibilities, and to give diagnosiis that do not fit the presenting symptoms, or fail to fully explore clinically significant symptoms

Vets can arm themselves in their battle for rightful benefits with knowledge:

At the opening of today's House of Representative's session, a bill was introduced to provide returning veterans with educational and health benfits based on the GI bill that did so much to help returning GI's from WWII.  It would be funded by a modest 1/2 of 1% increase in income tax rates on those earning over $500,000 per year.  This eminently reasonable proposal was hailed as a major step forward by both parties, and immediately passed the House and Senate with near unamimous consent.  The President promised to return early from his delicate Mid East diplomatic trip to sign the bill and preside over this new Era of Good Feeling.  

Please, do not let Brandon Friedman's VoteVets diary slide into oblivion; it deserves to be atop the recommended list.

Today, VoteVets.org and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) released a bombshell of an e-mail obtained from a Veterans Affairs (VA) employee. The email directs VA staff to refrain from diagnosing soldiers and veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

For the past three days, this five-part diary series has shared the experiences of Rachel, an Iraq War Veteran, and her encounters with the private military contractor, KBR. In a series of interviews, she revealed stories of unfair disparities in pay and treatment between contractors and military personnel, having to shower in what was essentially wastewater because of KBR's negligence, and her reactions to the KBR water scandal investigations upon her return to the United States.

Today's installment tells a different story, but one that is equally appalling and pertinent to the issue of how the Pentagon continues to subject the troops to mistreatment and negligence. Josh, a soldier who was also stationed at Camp Ramadi, describes his experiences with struggling to find medical help for a traumatic brain injury (TBI), induced by a roadside bomb in Iraq, and his subsequent case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

The NY Times has already posted an important long piece by Matt Bai which will appear in this Sunday's magazine.

Whatever their disagreements on policy, United States senators, even in today’s hyperpolitical climate, are reluctant to impugn one another’s motives or integrity.

That’s doubly true among those who experienced combat in the Vietnam War, a group that now includes four sitting senators — the Republicans John McCain and Chuck Hagel and the Democrats John Kerry and Jim Webb — as well as former colleagues like Bob Kerrey, Max Cleland and Chuck Robb. These men share an obvious bond, and over the years they have more readily crossed partisan lines than other senators, constituting, in some ways, a party unto themselves.

Cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org:

Yesterday, in Part II of this five-part series, I shared my friend Rachel's experiences in Iraq with having to shower in dirty, contaminated water provided to the troops by private contractor and former Halliburton subsidiary, KBR. This story followed Rachel's recollectionof the grossly higher paychecks the contractors were receiving for the same work as the military personnel, a sick twist of irony if you consider how poorly the contractors were doing the jobs they are paid six-figure incomes to perform.

While the firsthand testimony of her experiences shocked and angered me, the findings of the investigations that followed truly made me disgusted:

This is my first time posting to Kos!  Being an armchair politician as well as a daydreamer, I often find myself thinking: "If I were President, I would..."  Today, it would seem, is no different.  With all the talk about stop losses, deplorable conditions, casualty rates, and GI Bills, I felt like proposing my own legislation to honor those who serve this country.  

With so many promises made, and so few of them kept, it’s time we establish the honor that we proclaim, by serving those who so nobly serve us.  I am hereby proposing my own legislation to whatever body politic will give it consideration (knowing full well that a lack of consideration is not only the possibility, but also the likelier).  Herewith is what I am calling: The American Honored Service Act:      

UPDATE: See follow up diary Here

I was reading the local paper last week, and a letter to the editor sprang up at me. In it, a volunteer for the VFW chapter in Farmville, VA wrote that the Veteran's Hospital in Richmond does not have enough socks for their patients, many of them long-term care patients.

The injured soldiers' feet get cold due to the limited activity most of them can stand. Their feet get cold, hence the socks.

Yesterday, in Part 1 of this series, "Who's Supporting the Troops?", I shared part of my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq who experienced first hand the abuse and neglect of private military contractors. Although many people identified with Rachel's incredible story, Rachel requested we not print her last name or rank for purposes of privacy. Rachel's story began by exposing the egregious pay discrepancies between military and civilian contractors. Her experiences teach us that the very idea of hiring these contractors is at once channeling resources away from the troops and placing profit as a priority over the security of our troops.

This reality would be infuriating enough if there wasn't an additional piece compounding this problem: the contractors are doing a poor, and sometimes downright destructive, job. In the case of KBR's performance in fulfilling their contracted service of providing water to the troops, Rachel had much to share with me:

It's Tuesday May 13, 2008 and on this day in history, The Beatles debuted the movie "Let It Be" in 1970 and back in 1943 German and Italian forces surrendered in Africa but that's nothing compared to what we have for you today.

Right now, it's 7:30 am here in Seattle and 10:30 back in Washington DC where as far as I can tell, not one elected official has thought today about the fact that by now, two or three, maybe more, young American men and women who served their country in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed themselves.

Some may have used a gun and pulled the trigger when they couldn't take the pain or the wait of up to six months that they are told to wait before seeing a mental health specialist. Some may use pills or drive their car into a wall. Some will slit their wrists.

All our brave young and women we as a nation have failed to serve with a hint of the honor and courage that they served us.

Obama is my candidate, and has been since he won Iowa, and I started entertaining the possibility of him as president and decided I felt good about it.

Talking in West Virginia yesterday Obama struck a sour note.  I am happy to see him wearing a flag pin, or not.  I am happy to see him trying to connect with conservatives, even if most of them won't vote for him. When he is president, we'll all have to work together.  That is the most appealing idea of his campaign.

But when Obama implies that people opposed to the war in Viet Nam were disrespectful of returning veterans, he is buying into, and keeping alive, a falsehood.  

The American people were the same then, as now.  The American people, when they oppose a war, do not blame it on the young people sent out to risk their lives for the likes of Dick Cheney or Dick Nixon.  There are exceptions, of course, but they are very rare.

I had just read a great-catch diary this morning by NWTerriD where she nailed John McCain on a rather large misinterpretation of the Constitution during a speech at Wake Forest and his campaigns attempts to cover it up.

Less than an hour later while watching MSNBC, I found myself in a laughably similar situation.