More Fallout from Dubya's War

While those of us who want the war to end (now!) are excoriated by dubya's defenders for "not supporting our troops," every now and then something leaks out about how well this Administration is supporting the troops. It's usually the news is abominable.

A while ago, there was news about the deplorable treatment found at Walter Reed.

This time, there's news about the deplorable treatment found at Walter Reed.

The only difference is that this second article focuses on the Army's "treatment" of its soldiers' various mental health issues - mainly Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Meet Pfc. Joshua Calloway.

Calloway, blue-eyed and lantern-jawed, lasted nine months [of his year long deployment in Iraq] -- until the afternoon he watched his sergeant step on a pressure-plate bomb in the road. The young soldier's knees buckled and he vomited in the reeds before he was ordered to help collect body parts. A few days later he was sent to the combat-stress trailers, where he was given antidepressants and rest, but after a week he was still twitching and sleepless. The Army decided that his war was over.

He was sent to Walter Reed for treatment. According to the article, there were lots of psychiatric drugs and little therapy. More fallout from dubya's war:

On an early venture outside Walter Reed, he went to downtown Silver Spring and became enraged by young people laughing at Starbucks. "Don't they know there is a war going on?" he said.

Wearing a rock band T-shirt, Calloway looked like any other 20-year-old on the sidewalk, but an unspeakable compulsion tore through him. He said he wanted to hatchet someone in the back of the neck.

"I want to see people that I hate die," he said. "I want to blow their heads off. I wish I didn't, but I do." He made similar statements to his psychiatry team at Walter Reed.

As if the entire thing weren't so sickening, this next part is frightening. Calloway finally finds a therapist he can work with, but it's late in the process. He's heading home soon and he's worried about how the Army would set his disability pay. However:

His case worker had told him that she could not locate anyone at Fort Campbell to provide written proof that he had witnessed a traumatic event in combat. [His new therapist Lt. Col. Robert] Forsten picked up the phone and within days had an official statement.

What would have happened had Calloway NOT found Forsten? How many Calloways don't? Ever?

How much more damage needs to be done to men and women like Pfc. Calloway before this administration and its diminishing defenders say: enough!