This is a tragedy of Greek proportions, and we keep repeating it over and over
again. You want change: require every Congressman and woman to send their
sons and grandsons to war as an obligation of office. Wars would stop unless we
were attacked and we’d eliminate the deficit. That’s just for openers.

It is still news that the US Vererans Administration is a horribly callous, imperial bureaucracy, totally devoted to the whims of the bureaucrats therein, paying attention only to those combat vets in need when those bureaucrats find it convenient for their own career prospects?

Nothing new here since 1952.

Try again.

Bring back the draft.. limit exemptions.

Tear down our mercenary expeditionary force-expansion.

Adios.

Stay tuned, many more to come.

Good post, ardee.

I remember my brother coming home on leave from Vietnam radically different than when he had left, he was just eighteen. At the time I couldn’t have been more than ten or twelve.

He was saying things extremely unlike him, or anyone in our family for that matter. He was home for only a few days, spending most of that with his fiance.

One of the days while visiting with my parents and the family, a huge argument broke out between him and my parents regarding some of the things he was saying. It created a huge situation, with half of us wanting to let him speak (regardless of what he said or how horrible it sounded) without making unqualified judgments and the other half wanting to “set him straight” regarding some of the bizarre stances he was taking. It was very upsetting to everyone and he only had leave for a few days so there wasn’t much one could have done, if in fact one could have done something. Hanging over it all, we knew that we might never see him again, at all… ever… since he was in heavy combat zones. He basically avoided family for the rest of his short leave and spent it with his fiance.

It was strange to see him so radically changed in so short a time. Eventually (after 3 yrs) he was
discharged, he married his fiance and still kept mostly to himself and his wife, avoiding family.

Now that many years have passed I do know that he suffered horribly with only his wife to help him through, which she did admirably. They are still together and in their sixties now and through the years info regarding what had happened filtered out. But even in this, mainly the rest of us don’t have a clue, only what we can imagine.

He REFUSES to talk about it at all with the rest of us and what we do know is only what his wife has implied (only many decades after the fact). She apparently has a pact with him never to divulge anything he doesn’t - she’s been true to that - and as hard as it is sometimes on this end, I think it created a trust that allowed him to deal with the pain.

But you are spot on, the damage done is irreversible and from what I can tell, the damage can only be addressed but never undone. It never just “goes away”.

Those of us who were safe here at home have no idea what that young man saw.  I realize that many have fought in wars without becoming so mentally ill that they lost control and killed innocent people.  But the breaking point is different in us all.

Those I am most angry with are the people who have never gone to war, will never go to war, but become so thrilled when war comes and give no thought to the young men and women who are physically and mentally destroyed. It is as if waving the flag and yelling “God Bless America!!!” fills them with the arrogance that tells children “You may have to die now”.

There are many victims of war other than those killed or maimed on battlefields. So called “collateral damage” includes civilians in war zones as well as those soldiers forever damaged by their experiences.

My own Vietnam era buddies are not exempt from this PTSD syndrome yet battled for years to get the help they so desperately needed. If there were a just universe those responsible for these unnecessary wars would be prosecuted and jailed; including Bush 43, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell et al.

When will we learn?