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Quick post today, everybody, in light of finals. Also, I'm going to be a bit more serious than normal. This is an issue that has been touched on briefly, but this article really hit home for me:

"Despite being diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and rated 70 percent disabled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Damian Fernandez has been called back to duty and told to prepare for another deployment to Iraq.

Two weeks ago, Fernandez, who was discharged from active duty in the Army last year and was working to settle back into civilian life, abruptly received orders to report to Fort Benning, Ga., on Jan. 14.

When the FedEx letter from the Army arrived Nov. 28, he calmly told his mother and girlfriend, "I got my orders," staring hard at them with vacant eyes.

That night, he snapped. He told his girlfriend, Riella Darko, that he wanted to die and asked her to take him to the emergency room of St. Mary's Hospital, where he was placed on a suicide watch. He has since been transferred to a locked ward in the Northampton VA Medical Center in Massachusetts.

His callback orders have not yet been rescinded."

---

I don't know who, exactly, is to blame for this. Rumsfeld, probably, for insisting on using a light force (see: Plan of Attack or State of Denial). Bush, maybe, for starting this mess in the first place. I don't know, but whoever's fault this is:

That is the worst person in the world.

At least this week.

9 comments:

leaveonlyfootprints said...

then again, there is always this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6167695.stm

Iran is having a conference to investigate whether or not the Holocaust happened.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it amazing we've allowed this 'back door draft' to continue without any leadership realizing it is wrong?

The beauty of the U.S. army is supposed to be that we are all-volunteer, that we are fighting for our freedoms and beliefs, but this is just not the case in this situation. We have Republicans claiming that everyone in the armed services is there by choice. This is simply not true.

Or said...

yeah, I'm obviously biased, but I think Iran gets the award this week. (fun fact: the conference is attended by David Duke, former head of the KKK and Republican state rep of "Mossad caused 9/11" fame)

sigh. why are there so many batshit insane people in the world?

Adam Hearts Dems said...

it's traumatic, 70% is higher than vietnam, though we really don't know with vietnam cause it was so underreprted and misdiagnosed. Really the person to blame is Vice President Cheney. The President didn't make this decision to invade Iraq; Dick Cheney has been its biggest pusher from the beginning. And as bad as Rumsfeld is, his greatest mistake was the conduct of the war, not its originial motivation. The blame sits squarely on the Veep.

Rach C said...

To Adam and anyone else interested in the planning of this war--

I highly recommend the book Rise of the Vulcans by James Mann. It gives a real inside look on the mentality of Bush and key advisers like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perle, and others going into planning for Iraq. It's startling and disturbing, not to mention excellently written and researched.

Or said...

it's also, I believe, assigned reading for a certain Georgetown class *cough*...

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