Pentagon bean-counters won't compensate troops for mental trauma, claiming illnesses pre-existed

[bigtree]

Pentagon: Mental Illnesses 'Pre-Existing'

Pentagon officials are blaming some mental health discharges of U.S. troops in Iraq on what they call pre-existing mental conditions.

Experts say many of the approximately 10 soldiers and Marines discharged every day for mental health problems actually have combat-related problems, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday.

By classifying the health problems as non-combat related, the military is saving money on treatment, the newspaper said.

Sens. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have inserted language in a defense authorization bill to make it harder to discharge troops on those grounds, and to require a review of procedures by the Government Accountability Office.

Bond called the practice an abuse of the system. Obama said the lack of care for returning soldiers is "deeply disturbing." (c) UPI


http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212106713.shtml


St. Louis Post-Dispatch article on Barack Obama's site:
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/09/29/many_soldiers_get_boot_for_pre.php

[dysfunctional press]

1. if they had pre-existing mental illnesses- why were they allowed to become soldiers?

once they enlist and are accepted into the armed services- "pre-existing" conditions should NOT be used or applicable for denying benefits.

[groovedaddy]

2. Cannon fodder is cannon fodder

but anything to support our troops UNLESS they had prior mental illness.

[Dhalgren]

3. The fact that they enlisted in the first place shows that they had

mental problems. That seems to be the logic of the Pentagon. If the soldiers had been 100%, they would never have joined the Army, right? This is so sickening. Why on earth would anyone join the US military? They must just loved getting fucked on a continual basis - maybe they do have "problems"...

[bigtree]

5. many reasons for enlisting, many of them economic

regional, generational . . .

[Dhalgren]

6. Of course there are many reasons for joining,

but the Pentagon seems to think that joining = mental problems. For the military to almost automatically declare that all of these soldiers suffering from PTS and other blatant reactions to the hell they have gone through to have "pre-existing" mental disorders says plainly what they actually believe. It is the worse betrayal of our military men and women, so far, in this unending stream of betrayals. Every soldier should go AWOL, right now, and by god, we should protect them with our lives...

[bigtree]

7. now I get ya

Catch-a-22

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Ahhhh...they're just fakin' it so they can go home. Catch-22

"The only people I can down are crazy people. Only crazy people fly more missions. If you don't want to fly more missions then you're not crazy" - Doc Daneeka

"That's some catch, that Catch-22." - Yossarian

From memory, but close enough to the book.