For the past five years American soldiers have been embroiled in the occupation of Iraq, and one of the ways our government has controlled the public dialog about its illegal action is to exhort us to “support the troops” by fully funding the mission until its completion. Those of us who opposed the war from its inception and thought supporting the troops meant ending the war/occupation were branded as unpatriotic. Yet nothing illustrates the shallowness and hypocrisy of the Bush administration’s rhetoric than the way injured soldiers are treated by the Defense Department bureaucracy.
A report in the Nation magazine last year uncovered the process. Faced with escalating costs which some estimates say may run into the trillions of dollars, our leaders are looking for ways to cut costs. Enter the convenient diagnosis of personality disorder, which us now being used to deny disability and medical benefits to injured war veterans. The Defense Department, borrowing from the worst of what medical underwriting has to offer, can now state that a soldier had a pre-existing mental disorder, discharge the soldier due to personality disorder, and deny coverage thus avoiding responsibility for the escalating cost of traumatic brain injuries, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other catastrophic injuries.
The reporting by Joshua Kors led to congressional hearings on the topic and the drafting of bills in both houses of Congress aimed at halting the process until specific acceptable guidelines are established. The bills were drafted in July 2007 and have languished in committee ever since. The House bill – The Fair Mental Health Evaluation for Returning Veterans Act (HR 3167) is now stuck in the Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, number 166 out of 221 bills listed as referred to that subcommittee. The Senate Bill – entitled A bill to ensure proper administration of the discharge of members of the Armed Forces for personality disorder, and for other purposes (S1817) – is now in the Senate Armed Services Committee, and listed 96th on a list of 142 bills and resolutions. It is easy to see how these items can get lost or ignored. The only way to move this through Congress is if enough people contact their representatives in the House and Senate and insist on passage of the legislation. You can find out who represents you here. Please contact them and urge them to move these bills through the committees they are stuck in to an ultimate vote in the full House and Senate. It is long past time to put an end to this atrocious treatment of injured vets.
